Blinding Art
by Jenova Virus
Summary: Taking place before the start of Shippuuden, Deidara and Sasori go on a mission to find the Three Tails Snow Tiger inside the body of a girl who has been isolated and tortured her entire life. Deidara finds his soft side upon discovering her, her past and wants to save her before removing her Jinchuriki. (I wrote this story YEARS ago so it is not follow the actual anime/manga.)
1. Chapter 1

Snow fell hardly in the village hidden in the snow. It was always winter here and people here have never known spring; there was always snow on the ground covering every blade of grass and made the village colorless. There was a war going on, the village hidden in the rain were on a massive killing spree and they took everyone that they had seen and sent them to camps where they would die. Screams cried all over this country that were heard everywhere. Families hid in their basements and in any place that they could fit into so that they wouldn't be taken away. There was this one house with a young girl in it who just hid under her bed sheets in a pitch black room crying away. She knows that today was the day that she's going to die; now it's a matter of time. Although she didn't really know what death was, she could sense that something was going to happen and it wasn't going to be good and she knew fear all too well. At nightfall, the ninja would return to their campsites then they would return to round up more villagers early the next morning, until then it was slightly calmer.

The next day, as promised, the ninja were back but not just ninja from the hidden rain village, there were two rogue ninja just strolling through the village in search of something. One ninja was from the village hidden in the sand and the other was from the hidden rock village, they both had a scar on their forehead shield which indicated what village they were from. As the war went on, they kept searching for what they needed. They too blew doors open and searched every inch of each house until they came to a lone house up on a snowy hillside that was not stained with blood but inside the house was splattered with blood. The blonde boy moved his arm to the door knob and pushed the door open as he did so, the girl that was under her bed sheets gasped when she heard the door. Her gasp caught the red hairs ear and he followed the sound to a wooden door. As the girl hid under her sheets, she could hear footsteps getting closer to her room as she clutched her sheets shaking with fear. She knew that she was living her last few moments in fear. He creaked open the door, shining some light in the dark room for the first time in years and noticed a lump on a bed that sat in the corner. Deidara, the blonde, pulled the sheets up as he heard whimpering coming from underneath.

"Master Sasori," Deidara began, "Look!" Sasori walked over to check out the frightened girl.

"This is the one." He said. The girl had dark green hair and bandages that covered her eyes. Sasori picked her up by the arm forcing her to scream then he dropped her.

"Careful, un. Don't hurt her." Deidara said then Sasori looked at him with a blank expression on his face.

"She is the one that possesses the Jinchuriki that we need." Sasori said boredly.

"Yeah, that's why I told you to be careful, un!"

"Hmph." Sasori said turning back to the frightened girl. "Deidara, use one of your clay birds to carry her back to the hideout."

"Right, un." He said quickly sculpting a bird then he threw it on the ground and it expanded large enough for someone to sit on it, then Sasori grabbed onto the girls arm forcing her to scream. "Master!" Deidara nudged.

"I know, I know." Sasori said throwing the girl on top of the bird, and then he tied her down so that she couldn't get off. Deidara watched as the girl squirmed to try to get free but her best efforts were no use, he noticed that the ropes were tied so tight that they were beginning to cut her pale skin.

"Master you tied her too tight, she's beginning to bleed."

"You're too soft Deidara, she's just a girl."

"That maybe so, un, but how would you like it if you were her?"

"Fine, I'll loosen them up if you stop talking." Sasori negotiated. "But if she gets away, it's your fault, Deidara."

"She won't get away, un. I'll watch her." Deidara finished then there was a silence between them as they walked back to their base. "I wonder how long she's been hiding under those sheets for, by herself there." He thought out loud. After many days of walking, they finally reached the base and Pein the leader came out to inspect the girl who possessed the Jinchuriki.

"Good work you two, now all we need to do is strip her of her powers, everyone in position." Up came a statue from the ground that had chains on its wrists, everyone stood on a specific finger and preformed a releasing jutsu. "That's it, nice and steady." All of a sudden, all of the power that they had sucked out of her body reversed flow and vacuumed back into the girl's body.

"What?" They all gasped as the girl began to transform into a monster.

"It's the three tailed snow tiger." Kisame, the shark-like guy said.

"Careful, it's waking up." Pein said. The tiger stood up and grew until it was as tall as the statue then it began to get angry and it unleashed its furry by attacking everyone and everything. Everyone tried to restrain the beast but it was too powerful but eventually it just collapsed and returned to the girl's body who was passed out on the floor. "Hm, it's not quite ready."

"That was a waste of chakra." Hidan, the silver haired complained.

"Sasori, Deidara, take her into your room and make sure that she doesn't escape." Pein ordered.

"Yes leader-sama." They replied as they began to carry her. They couldn't tell if she was awake because she always had those bandages over her eyes.

The next day, mid afternoon, the girl began to get up, showing that she was awake. Deidara and Sasori were the only ones in the room to guard the girl.

"Looks like she's awake."Sasori noticed.

"Finally un. Now we can have some fun with her, yeah?" Deidara said walking over to her then he kneeled down in front of her and noticed something written on the back of her neck. "Master, come take a look at this."

"What is it?" Sasori asked as his eyes widened.

"Naiya... I wonder, do you think that this could be her name?"

"Why not. I don't know what else to call her."

"You hear that? We're going to call you Naiya, hm?" Deidara said but Naiya only tilted her head and did not understand much. "I don't think that she can talk."

"Well you should teach her." Sasori gave a small interested smile.

"How am I going to teach someone who can't see, un? Do you think that she's blind?"

"Yes she is, she has those bandages over her eyes for a reason plus she never turns to other direction of a source of sound or a voice, she was abandoned for what looked like years before we found her so I'm not expecting her to know much."

"It's kind of sad, her all alone in that dark room for years. It must have been since birth if she can't even talk, un."

"You should be thankful that she can't even see, otherwise she will scream at those mouths on your hands."

"Yeah. Naiya, can you talk? Please answer me, yeah." Deidara said loudly, Naiya screamed as she covered her ears then she fell to the ground with a loud THUNK which made her cry even more. Everyone from the Akatsuki organization ran into the room.

"What happened here?" Pein angrily rushed in and seen Naiya screaming on the ground.

"Naiya won't stop screaming." Deidara yelled above all the noise.

"So that's what you decided to call her." Kisame said. Itachi picked her up by the arm but she still screamed.

"Shut up!" Hidan shouted back but there was no stopping Naiya instead, blood came out of her ears.

"Stop." Deidara shouted as he noticed the blood. "Her ears are very sensitive."

"I can't take any more noise! Let's lock her up." Kakuzu demanded.

"No, I can take care of her, un. I promise."

"First shut her up." Zetsu yelled. Deidara thought quickly of what might keep her quiet then he placed some soft clay in her hands which seemed to work.

"Finally." Pein said.

"Leader-sama, let her stay with me, I can take care of her and teach her how to talk, just don't hurt her."

"Hm, you realize that this would put a huge dent in our mission, not to mention the fact that you won't be going on any for the time being."

"I promise that I will make it up somehow, un, just give me a chance."

"Fine, but if anything happens, it's your fault and you have to take care of it."

"Yes leader-sama."

"Very well then, I better not be let down." Pein said as he left the room along with everyone else.

"So how do you plan on doing this?" Sasori asked doubtfully.

"I don't know, un. I just didn't want leader-sama to hurt her." Deidara started then Naiya began to groan with her tiny stomach. "She's hungry. I'll go get her some cereal." Deidara walked past everyone's room to get to the kitchen and there he poured his favourite cereal into a bowl and carried it back to his room then he lifted a spoonful of cereal and put it into Naiya's mouth. "You must be hungry after being locked up in that room, so I've brought you some food, yeah."

"Well good luck with all of this." Sasori said walking out of the room.

"Okay maybe I'll start by teaching her how to talk, yeah?" Deidara smiled


	2. Chapter 2

Deidara watched as Naiya was curled up on his bed fast asleep after long hours of trying to teach her to talk, but he wouldn't give up on her. He took a ball of soft clay out from his pocket and began to sculpt another one of those masterpieces that he calls art and as he played with it, he watched Naiya's stomach rise and fall in her sleep and he wondered how he was going to take care of her. He realized that when she was screaming earlier that she immediately went quiet as soon as he gave her the lump of clay so he thought that he could somehow use the clay to teach her to talk seems how she took an interest upon the clay. Deidara sighed heavily.

"What am I going to do, un?" Deidara asked himself just before there was a knock on the door then Sasori just let himself in.

"Any words coming out?" Sasori asked but Deidara just shook his head. "Leader-sama wants to speak with all of us."

"But I can't leave Naiya; just tell him that I can't make it."

"Relax, it's not like she'll blow up the room while you're gone, now come on lets go." Sasori pushed him to the room where all of the Akatsuki members were gathered.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin." Pein started. "As you all know, we have a Jinchuriki living with us temporarily; Naiya. We need to be careful around her because her Jinchuriki is sensitive and also that we found out earlier, her ears are sensitive as well."

"That girl would be very useful for my ritual." Hidan chuckled

"Don't even go there Hidan, we need this girls Jinchuriki, and besides, if you use her for that, it will only anger her and who knows what she could do. Now we have a slight problem, she's a girl... and we're all guys."

"So, what's your point?" Zetsu asked.

"I mean if she's so helpless, who's going to dress her and bathe her?"

"Good question." Kisame laughed.

"I could." Hidan said only for his own naughty reasons.

"There's no way I'm trusting her with you Hidan." Deidara said.

"Maybe we can just ask her, or she can do it herself." Kakuzu said.

"You baka, we can't just ask her! There's no way that she can do it herself. I'm surprised that she can even walk. Ever since she came here she's been nothing but trouble." Hidan shouted

"Hey you're more trouble than she is with your stupid rituals." Deidara defended.

"Shut the **** up Deidara."

"Guys, now's not the time."

"Why are you fighting about a stupid girl any ways?" Zetsu asked clueless and Deidara glared at him then they all heard a THUNK then a CRASH.

"Naiya!" Deidara shouted as he and everyone else ran to his room to check out what happened and there she laid on the floor with a scratch on her arm. There was a clay moulding tool that Naiya scraped her arm against as she fell to the ground and it laid right beside her covered with a bit of blood.

"Ha, maybe I was wrong, she can't walk." Hidan mocked.

"Naiya are you alright, hm?" Deidara bent down beside the weeping girl and tried to comfort her.

"That's it, I'm outta here." Zetsu said walking away while being followed by everyone else but Deidara and Sasori.

"Is she alright?" Sasori asked.

"Yeah, it looks like it's only a scratch." Deidara answered while sitting Naiya on his bed.

"Hold still, I'm not going to hurt you." He gently said while trying to apply some healing cream but Naiya slightly whined as she pulled away after she felt the slight contact. "I won't hurt you." He said again but this time Naiya allowed for Deidara to treat her wounds. He gently applied the cream to her cut then he wrapped some cloth bandages around her arm to discontinue the air flow. Naiya smiled in relief when Deidara had finished and he too smiled at her but unfortunately, she couldn't see it.

"Where do you think you're going?" Kisame asked as he noticed Deidara trying to sneak Naiya past him.

"Un, nowhere, I was just going to take Naiya out for some ice-cream, hm?"

"Heheh, I don't think that leader-sama would like this."

"Do me a favour and keep quiet about it, yeah! We won't be out long enough for him to notice that we are gone."

"Hyuk hyuk!" Kisame chuckled. Deidara directed Naiya towards a small ice-cream stall in a small town somewhat nearby the hide out.

"You're going to love their ice-cream, un. It's so creamy and full of flavour." He said then Naiya smiled at the sweet sound of his voice, which also made Deidara smile. When they finally reached the ice-cream stall, Deidara sat Naiya down at a private picnic bench, ordered some ice-cream then brought it over to the bench and they began to lick their treats. Naiya took her first lick of her strawberry ice-cream and her face instantly lit up. "I thought you'd like it, un." Naiya savoured the flavour as soon as her tongue made contact with the frozen treats and did not let any of it go to waste, for her first ice-cream, her face stayed clean and never needed to be wiped. As for the last of the cone, Naiya was sad for the tasty goodness to be finished, she was full half way but she just had to keep eating it because she had never tasted anything so refreshing, in fact, she couldn't remember having any sweets since that she was locked up for nearly her whole life. "Come on; let's go back to the hide-out before someone other than Kisame knows that we are gone." Naiya almost nodded as if she could understand what Deidara was saying then he directed her towards the base and they began to stroll that way. Naiya could recognize Deidara's voice apart from anyone else's, she already feels comfortable around him because he always speaks to her softly and he never even thinks of hurting her, instead, he protects her. She smiled the whole walk home until she reached Deidara's room and lay on his bed. Deidara looked up from his clay that he was sculpting in time to notice that Sasori was staring back at him with a slight smirk in the corner of his mouth.

"I knew that you couldn't resist taking her outside but do you have any idea on what the h*** you're doing?" He said changing his expression quickly.

"Yeah I made sure that no one followed us here."

"That's not good enough, you're lucky that I took a second look around, otherwise you two could be dead."

"Master, you always talk of me being helpless but I can take care of myself, un."

"But can you take care of yourself and Naiya? You're putting her in more danger then yourself. You're so careless Deidara." Sasori said and Deidara frowned. "Just be careful, if you don't get caught by a stranger, then you will get caught by leader-sama and he won't go easy on you."

"Yeah, yeah, un." Deidara said rolling his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Five hours later, Deidara fell on the couch in front of the TV.

"What's the matter?" Kisame asked.

"It's Naiya; she still isn't talking no matter how much I try to teach her."

"Well maybe you can take some of that stress out tonight." Sasori said.

"Why, what's tonight?"

"Kakuzu went on a mission so now we are going to the casino and we don't have anyone to yell at us for wasting money."

"Plus, since Kakuzu doesn't trust banks with handling money, we are going to steal his money because he has such low security to protect it." Kisame added to Sasori's remark.

"That sounds awesome!" Deidara celebrated.

"Yeah, and leader-sama says that we can bring Naiya, he thinks that she can score us some major cash and women."

"I don't know how much help she will be." Sasori rolled his eyes.

"Doesn't matter, she still is coming. Who knows, she could be good luck."

"She could also be bad luck." Sasori mumbled so that only he and Kisame could hear and they both chuckled a bit.

"I'd better go tell Naiya." Deidara rushed to his room.

"What's the point?" Kisame laughed as soon as Deidara was gone, and then Sasori chuckled too.

"Well if it makes him happy then let him do it."

"Naiya!" Deidara said once he got to his room. "Naiya guess what, tonight we are going to go out to a casino together and leader-sama said you can come." Naiya smiled brightly at the sound of Deidara's voice then she jumped on top of him making them fall backwards on the bed. She squeezed herself against Deidara making him blush from the softness of her breasts being cushioned against his chest.

"Well look at what we have here." Hidan started. "Deidara, I never thought that you would be the one to seduce this chick."

"I'm not seducing her un, she just jumped on top of me to give me a hug."

"Right, look we are leaving in half an hour so you might want to get yourself and Naiya ready because we will leave without you. I'm gonna get me a couple of babes." Hidan said as he left the doorway.

"Um, okay? I'll get a jacket." Deidara said as he walked to his closet but when he opened it, there were no clothes that would fit Naiya properly. While thinking, Deidara changed out of his Akatsuki robe and into something more casual. "Looks like all of my clothes are too big for you, hm? No matter, we can just take you shopping one of these days yeah?" Deidara said looking at Naiya and she smiled at him. "I can't give her one of my robes otherwise the people at the casino will know who we are." Deidara found a shirt but it was big so it just slipped off of her shoulder. "Still too big." Deidara ripped off some of his curtains and put it around Naiya then he tweaked it to make it fit just right. "There, un. It fits perfectly now."

"Deidara what's taking you?" Pein called and it echoed down the hall.

"Coming leader-sama." Deidara called back. "It took forever but I finally got some clothes to fit her, un."

"Let's go." Pein ordered and they all began to walk to the Grand Casino. "Try to keep up Deidara." Pein said jokingly.

"By the way, how did you get those clothes onto Naiya?" Hidan said trying to make Deidara embarrassed.

"I just put my curtains on top of her clothes, un. I didn't take anything off. I'm not a pervert like you Hidan." Deidara said slightly angrily and trying not to raise his voice around Naiya.

"Hmph, Jashin appreciates what I do for him unlike you unreligious people! By the way, Deidara, I don't think that you are allowed into the casino. Aren't you too young to drink?"

"Enough!" Pein ordered. "I'm sick of you guys' rambling arguments."

"Yeah you two are giving us an awful headache." Zetsu's black side said and his white side agreed with him. Deidara grew angry inside but he just continued to help Naiya along the pathway.

"Yes I am old enough do drink but I don't know about Naiya, I don't think that she will have anything."

"Here we are boys, now I want you all back at the base by tomorrow morning and you are free to do whatever now so go get lost."

"Alright Naiya, what should we do first?" Deidara asked. Hidan immediately went to the bar and sat with a couple of women. Itachi, Zetsu and Pein went to play poker, Kisame went to play the roulettes and Sasori went to the slots. "Let's to watch master Sasori at the slots, yeah?" He said beginning to guide Naiya to the slot machines. "Hey master how are you doing at the slots, hm?"

"Well I would tell you but I just got here and this is only my second round." Sasori said.

"Why don't we try one, hm?" Deidara said putting a coin into a slot machine right beside Sasori's then he pulled the lever. As the slots began to spin, Naiya walked away without Deidara noticing. She walked while bumping into a few tables and people over to another table where a crowd of women sad drinking alcohol filled drinks and almost fell on their table.

"Had a few too many honey?" One of the ladies asked while picking Naiya up and seated her at the table with them. "Here why don't you have a couple on us?"

"Ah she's so cute." Another lady said.

"She's so skinny, maybe she's you know..."

"Oh do you think? She could be anorexic." One of them said holding a shot glass to Naiya's mouth then they dumped some hard liquor down her throat.

"I wonder who she's with?"

"We haven't introduced ourselves yet ladies. I'll start. I'm Kigusuke."

"Rine"

"I'm Sasami.

"And I'm Iroshime. And what might your name be?" The four ladies sat waiting for Naiya answer but they ended up waiting a lot longer than necessary. "Come on, don't be shy now."

"Maybe she's mute." Sasami thought out loud.

"Nah she's just shy aren't you sweety." Iroshime said smiling at Naiya. Naiya tried to leave the table but the women stopped her. Naiya began whining like a child to get away and finally, Deidara heard her and he ran over to the table where all of the women were hanging out with Naiya.

"Oh is this one with you honey?" Kigusuke asked Naiya.

"Yes she is with me now can I please have her back." Deidara said impatiently.

"My isn't he a cute one." Rine flirted and all of the other girls joined forgetting about Naiya. Naiya fell to the floor and Deidara quickly helped her up and tried to escape from the women. Deidara would have normally flirted with the women too after he had a few drinks but this time was different. He was responsible for Naiya so he tried to help her instead of enjoying himself at the casino.

"Where do you think you're going." Sasami said stepping in front of them.

"Some other time okay." Deidara said. Then Itachi and Kisame came over to try to get the women off of Deidara and Naiya's back.

"Hey there ladies." Kisame opened.

"Ew what's this fish thing doing out of the water?" Rine asked then Kisame did the anime fall.

"Sorry but he's with me." Itachi said.

"Mind if we sit with you babes?" Kisame asked.

"You can't but the black haired can." Sasami said feeling Itachi's muscles. Deidara and Naiya slipped out of the scene while they could and they managed to get away.

"You shouldn't run off like that Naiya especially in public, hm." Deidara said holding Naiya up. She kept on falling down because of all the alcohol that was in her blood stream. "You're acting like you had a few drinks, how many have you had while I wasn't watching, un?"

"Five or six." Zetsu said walking past.

"What, you seen her drinking and you didn't stop her?"

"I couldn't, there were women there Deidara and do you know what women do to us?"

"No what, yeah?"

"They make fun of our stick." His black side said answering Deidara's question.

"Naiya's more important." Deidara said right before Naiya threw up in front of them in between them and Zetsu. "Well we know that she can't hold her liquor." Deidara said then Naiya dropped and looked as if she was going to pass out. "No, no Naiya stay with me." Deidara said trying to keep her conscious.

"Clean up." One of the casino workers shouted then Pein went to check out the situation.

"What just happened here?" He asked.

"Apparently Naiya had a few too many." Zetsu's white side joked.

"Hm, Deidara, you are not to let her have any more drinks until she is out of our hideout." Pein ordered.

"Yes leader-sama, un." Deidara said half listening then Pein rolled his eyes and went back to playing black-jack.

Later on that same evening, everyone was still at the casino gambling with Kakuzu's unprotected money and Deidara managed to keep Naiya conscious but she was still out of it. Deidara tried to keep her occupied by playing some games with her but she just wondered off again. This time she somehow wondered away from everyone else and into a back hallway. She was still tipsy so she rested her hands on the wall for support as she walked but she soon came across to a door and she had her full body weight on the door so it slammed open and she fell on the ground. She heard a woman inside scream and a man gasp. Inside was Hidan making out with a woman that he just met and that woman happened to be one of the ladies from the table that Naiya came across except she was so drunk that she forgot all about who Naiya was. Kigusuke's scream was so loud that it caught everyone's ears in the casino and Deidara realized that Naiya had wondered off. Naiya was on the ground screaming from the woman's reaction and she covered her ears as blood began to slowly come out.

"Shut the **** up!" Hidan yelled with the not so wise idea that his powerful voice would make Naiya stop screaming but instead she screamed louder and her bandages around her eyes began to be soaked in blood.

"Get that girl out of my sight." Kigusuke said as she tried to kick Naiya away. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's stupid that's what." Hidan said. Kigusuke turned violent and began hitting and punching Naiya to get her away but she only bled more and screamed more. Deidara ran around the corner and pushed his way past a group of people that had gathered around the scene and found Naiya, Kigusuke and Hidan all in a small room. His heart sank when he seen Naiya bleeding helplessly on the floor then soon grew enraged when he seen traces of Naiya's blood on Kigusuke's knuckles which were in the form of a fist.

"What are you doing? Get off of her, un!" Deidara yelled pushing Kigusuke off of Naiya then he helped her up. When Naiya felt Deidara's soft touch on her arms, she slowly calmed down because she knew that it was him holding onto her. "Hidan I'll kill you, hm?"

"Oh shut up." Hidan replied.

"You know this guy?" Kigusuke asked.

"Unfortunately I do." Hidan replied while staring at Deidara and Naiya, wanting to hurt them.

"Come on Naiya, let's leave these two baka's alone, hm?" Deidara said starring while pushing Naiya along. "Put some clothes on Hidan." Deidara guided Naiya until they were outside then he sat her down on a bench near the entrance and Deidara kneeled down in front of her. "I'm so sorry Naiya, un. I shouldn't have taken my eye off of you." Deidara said softly. Just then, Pein came outside to check up on the two.

"Is Naiya alright?" Pein asked while standing next to them.

"Yeah, it's just a few cuts and bruises but her ears were bleeding again and this time her eyes were bleeding from her crying so hard, un."

"I think maybe you should take her back to the base. I don't think that a casino is the best place for her to be without being able to talk or see. There are just too many distractions."

"Yeah, yeah." Deidara said standing up then he dropped one of his clay birds on the ground and expanded it so that he could put Naiya on top of it.

"We will be heading home soon but I'm not sure about the same for Hidan. He said that he's going to spend a night in a hotel."

"That sick pervert." Deidara thought out loud. "You know leader-sama, it would be a whole lot easier to try to teach her how to talk if she could see, un."

"Yes I see what you mean. Perhaps I can help you with that. There may be a scroll with a jutsu that I can use to help heal her eyes." Pein said thinking about a certain scroll.

"Really that would be so much help. Did you hear what leader-sama said Naiya, he's going to heal your eyes so that you can see." Deidara said making Naiya smile then she jumped to him and hugged him. "Why are you hugging me? Leader-sama is the one who's going to do the work, un."

"But remember Deidara, with a medical jutsu like that, there are always some risks. I suggest that you give it a week so that her wounds can heal from tonight before I do anything to her."

"Yeah you're right, un. Thank you so much leader-sama." Deidara thanked. Pein nodded then walked back inside to the casino then Deidara flew Naiya back to the hideout and treated her wounds by wrapping bandages around the open cuts.


	4. Chapter 4

A week passed and it was finally the day that Naiya was going to get her eyes healed and also she will be given eyesight.

"Okay now Deidara are you sure that you want Naiya to go through with this? May I remind you of what the risks are."

"Yeah you told me the risks many times, un. I want Naiya to be able to see so that I can help her to talk. I think that she will be happier this way, yeah." Deidara said smiling. Naiya sat on an operating table beside him.

"He he, maybe when she has her sight, she will see that Deidara is really a woman." Kisame chuckled then Zetsu joined him with his roaring laughter.

"Hey I'm not a woman, un, I'm a guy, hm." Deidara said getting irritated.

"She will probably scream when seeing those mouths of yours." Hidan said.

"Shut up Hidan, no one asked you to be here, yeah. In fact I didn't ask for any of you guys to be here, un." Deidara said looking at the crowd of Akatsuki members behind him then they all walked away except for him, Naiya and Pein.

"Deidara I will ask you to leave the room during this session and once I have completed this jutsu, I will put clean bandages over her eyes and you are not to take them off until I instruct you to do so but it won't be for a while though. Also, if she cries, she may cry out blood mixed with tears, that is normal for the first so long it's a matter of healing until the eyes get cleaned out of the blood." Deidara just watched Naiya as he listened to Peins instructions.

"Yes leader-sama." He said softly then he looked at Pein. "Try not to hurt her too much, un." Pein nodded then he turned around and grabbed a sterilized needle that was half filled with freezing. Deidara couldn't help but watch as Pein slowly put the needle into Naiya's skin near her eyes and his hands tightened as he felt Naiya's pain then Pein made some hand signs then put his hand over Naiya's chest to make her fall asleep. "Uh, I'm going to go outside, un." Deidara said nervously then he walked out of the room and sank down against the wall just near to the door and put his hand on his eyes. Sasori noticed Deidara sitting on the floor as he was walking past and then he stopped and kneeled down beside him and put his hand on Deidara's shoulder. Deidara looked at him.

"She will be fine." Sasori said trying to calm Deidara down.

"It's not like leader-sama has practiced this jutsu before, un. Have I done the right thing?" Deidara asked himself.

"Hey, if this works, then it will be that much easier to help her to talk plus there are so many beautiful sights to see in life and she won't be missing out on it because of you." Sasori said slightly smiling making Deidara smile too.

"Yeah, un. Now I can show her my art." Just then, Kakuzu shouted and it carried threw the hallways of the hide out.

"What the heck was that?" Sasori asked. Everyone rushed over to Kakuzu's room and found him with a wallet in his tentacles and a single dollar in his hands.

"What the h*** did you guys do with my money?!" Kakuzu yelled at the top of his lungs while his anger fused. "Did you go to a casino? What did I tell you about using money at a place like that. Do you know the dangers of spending money?" Kakuzu rambled on about how money was so precious and his rage only grew.

"Relax old timer, we saved you a dollar." Hidan joked.

"Yeah, you're lucky that we left you some coin, unlike last time." Zetsu's white side said then Kakuzu began short circuiting.

"I'll kill you all!" Kakuzu yelled while beginning to run after everyone.

"Time to run, un." Deidara said getting a head start. Zetsu and Hidan were too busy laughing to noticed that Kakuzu released his tentacles and then he grabbed them both and smashed them on the ground numerously then he ran after the others. Itachi just walked out after using the bathroom and quickly stepped aside as Deidara, Sasori and Kisame ran past him.

"What's going on?" Itachi asked then he seen Kakuzu running towards him. He had no time to react by the time that Kakuzu had reached one of his tentacles out to strangle Itachi then soon enough, Itachi was on the floor and was winded from hitting the ground. "What the h*** was that all about."

"I'm going to kill you!" Kakuzu yelled while running after the last three. Deidara quickly made a sculpture of a bird and threw it at Kakuzu's faced then ignited it and it exploded, slowing down Kakuzu. He quickly wiped it off of him and attacked clumsy Kisame who tripped and fell.

"What do we do now master, hm?"

"I have an idea but we need Itachi's genjutsu." Sasori said. "Let's make a detour." Him and Deidara ran until they came past Itachi again, who was still on the floor, and while running, Sasori told Itachi their plan. Itachi grinned evilly and accepted his mission. Deidara and Sasori ran the same circuit buying Deidara and Itachi some time and when they were ready, Deidara launched a giant clay millipede and it wrapped itself around Kakuzu like rope.

"Katsu." Deidara said making a single hand sign then it exploded slowing Kakuzu down again then Itachi made a genjutsu pile of money in Kakuzu's room.

"Oh boy! There's my money." Kakuzu said and typical Kakuzu went into his room then everyone else teamed up and closed the door while piling large objects to prevent Kakuzu from getting out, then the genjutsu faded into nothing.

"Ggrrgh. I'll kill you all." He shouted trying to bust the door open.

"That otta buy us some time." Kisame said while clapping his hands from the dust of the floor.

"That was too close, un." Deidara said panting from all of that running.

"You said it." Sasori joined.

"Back to doing nothing." Zetsu said leaving all of the drama.

"Why is it always Zetsu that leaves first?" Itachi thought out loud.

"Because he gets bored the easiest." Sasori said.

"Yeah plus his black half wants to go back to making out with his white half, yeah." Deidara laughed and Kisame joined him. Itachi stood there and looked at Deidara like he was an idiot.

"You should talk. I wouldn't be surprised if you made your hands make out with each other before." Itachi said seriously making a point.

"Have not, hm?" Deidara said trying to defend himself but the threesome laughed without Deidara joining. Deidara grinded his teeth then went to his room while listening to them laughing down the hallway.


	5. Chapter 5

"Come on what's taking him, un?" Deidara asked as he paced outside of the medical room still waiting for Pein to come out with the word on if he was finished or not. "I thought that this would only take a few hours. Deidara put his ear against the door to try to listen in on what Pein was doing but he couldn't hear anything.

"What are you doing there?" Pein asked from behind Deidara making his body turn to jelly from fright then he fell to the floor still jumpy. He turned around to see Pein standing behind him. "You know that I'm done now right?"

"Don't do that, un." Deidara said mad from Pein scaring him.

"Well I've come to let you know that I have been done for about two hours now. It was a success."

"Two hours?! Why didn't you tell me sooner, hm?"

"Because I didn't want you to go in the room yet."

"Well you could have told me that, un." Deidara said folding his arms.

"She's just resting now, she should be up within the next hour. You can go in there I if you like." Pein informed but Deidara was already gone; Pein sighed. Deidara walked over to the operating table and seen Naiya sleeping there. He couldn't help but notice all of the clutter that Pein left lying around after he tried to heal Naiya's eyes.

"Boy, leader-sama sure left a lot of junk here, un." Deidara said to himself so he decided to move it so that Naiya wouldn't hurt herself on it then he sat down on a chair beside her body and waited until she woke up. He couldn't take his eyes off of her, he just kept on staring at her. He looked at her perfect snowy skin then suddenly he had to pull himself away. "Why am I feeling like this, hm? What is this feeling." He thought while holding his head in between his knees with his hands on the back of his neck. He abruptly got up and began pacing to try to calm himself down but he looked back at the girl. His heart pounded against his chest as he pulled himself closer to Naiya. Soon enough without noticing his face was right on top of hers. His eyes squinted as he tried to see through the bandages at the work that Pein had done to her but the bandages were thickly wrapped around her head so that no blood could seep through. Once again, Deidara pulled himself away with his heart still thumping. "This isn't normal, I have to stop this." He thought sinking back down into his chair.

After a few minutes, Naiya moved slightly and Deidara cocked his head to meet hers but she remained lying there frozen on the spot. Deidara turned his head back to his clay sculpting that he was doing to pass the time but he was interrupted again by Naiya sitting up.

"Naiya." Deidara said also getting up to support her. "How are you feeling Naiya, yeah?" Deidara expected an answer but he realized that she was different and she could not talk. "I'll take you back to my room, un." Deidara leaned over to pick Naiya up to carry her but his heart began to race again so he quickly pulled away, instead, he tried to help her up so that she could walk herself but she just stayed seated. Deidara walked over to the door and looked to see if anyone was nearby to help him but no one was there. "Stay there Naiya, I will be back, un." He said walking away, closing the door behind him, then he walked to his room in search of Sasori. "Master." Sasori looked up from his puppets that he was creating and seen Deidara standing by the door frame with a troubled look on his face.

"What is it?" Sasori asked then Deidara walked closer to him.

"Can you watch Naiya for an hour or so, hm? I need to go for a walk." Deidara asked and Sasori looked at him.

"Okay." He said.

"Thanks master, un." Deidara said then he went outside and walked away from the Akatsuki base to where he could be alone. "Ah, that feels better now, hm." Deidara thought as he laid himself on the grass then he took his mind off of everything by creating some clay sculptures then igniting then in mid air. "Art always makes me feel better, un." The wind began to pick up and it blew Deidara's hair into his face then he picked up his hand to brush it out of his eyes. He continued to blow up his creations but he heard something moving in the bushes. He grew suspicious when he sat up, he expected someone to attack but instead of him making a quick move, he closed his eyes and listened to how many footsteps there were to determine the number of people there were. "Seven, un." He made some clay bugs then set them on the ground so that they could crawl to where two of them had stopped. The insects crawled behind the bushes where two men had stopped to take out their kunai. While their guard was carelessly down, the insects crept up their legs then Deidara silently made a hand sign and the small insects exploded unexpectedly knocking the two ninja out cold. "That was too easy, hm?" Deidara said to himself as he jumped up to search for the other five ninja. One came fly out of a tree with three kunai in each hand and threw them at Deidara but he easily dodged them but another ninja threw shurrikin at him in a different direction as he was in the air. They barely scraped his coat and some even nicked his skin. Deidara threw out a millipede out of his right hands mouth and wrapped it around a ninja then Deidara quickly made a hand sign. "Katsu!" He shouted then that ninja fell on the ground. "Four more, this is too easy, un." Two ninja remained hidden in the trees throwing paper bombs at Deidara. "Hmph, those can't hurt me, I am an art master, un." Deidara said dodging those easily then he threw some clay at those two to take them out easily. He quickly made a bird and made a hand sign to expand it so he could jump on top to continue this fight at a better angle. "Two more, yeah." He thought as he reached into his clay pouch to make an exploding bird. "Almost out of clay." He threw his bird up in the air then it took flight on its own and soared to its destination on a suicide mission. "Where's the last one?" Deidara asked himself while scanning the area then he spotted his target running towards the Akatsuki base. "No you don't, un." Deidara said throwing out another bird, sending it on a suicide mission. The bird was successful on its mission. Deidara flew to the ground and took his giant bird in to make more clay masterpieces out of it in the future. He listened for anymore footsteps to see if there were any more ninja but since there weren't he decided to tell Pein that there were ninja close by to the base. Deidara walked back to the base but he made extra sure that there were no more ninja around before he opened the hideout. He walked in and went straight to Peins room and knocked on the door then went in. Pein stopped his paper work.

"What is it Deidara?" Pein asked commandingly.

"Leader-sama, I have spotted seven ninja near the base one of them was heading this way, un." Deidara informed.

"Well did you kill them?" Pein asked in a hurry.

"Easily, un." Deidara said and Pein relaxed in his chair.

"It's impossible for anyone to find the base. I made sure that it was well hidden. This must be Orochimaru's doing." Pein said turning around in his chair. Deidara gasped slightly.

"Orochimaru? What does he want with us, hm?"

"I'm not sure but I will take all necessary precautions to this base; a barrier, ninja guards anything. He's the only one who knows where we are. Whatever he is after he cannot have. Perhaps this would be a good time for a meeting. Deidara, go inform the others and bring Naiya with you."

"Yes leader-sama." Deidara answered then he went and found everyone and told them that Pein had summoned everyone into the meeting room then he went to his room to tell Sasori and get Naiya. "Master Sasori, Leader-sama has called us on a meeting, yeah."

"What for?" He asked seriously.

"I spotted ninja coming towards our base and leader-sama thinks that this is Orochimaru's doing."

"Orochimaru?" Sasori thought then he stood up. "Let's go."

"Hold on, un, I need to bring Naiya." Deidara said walking over to where Naiya was then he helped her up and walked her over to the meeting room.

"It's been a while since we had an emergency meeting, what's this all about leader-sama?" Kisame smiled.

"Orochimaru." Pein began. "Deidara seen some ninja heading this way for our base. I suspect that Orochimaru is planning something against us. Those ninja have to be under his command because he is the only one who knows where our hideout exists since he was a former member. What he has come for I cannot answer."

"Why would Orochimaru act now?" Itachi asked.

"Like I said, I don't have any idea for his motives nor do I know what he's after. He could be after our Jinchuriki. Sasori used to be partners with him so he knows what to expect from his jutsu but right now I think that he is just sending out his minions to do his work but he is definitely the one behind all of this."

"What should we do about this, I mean we don't even know what he's after so how can we defend ourselves let alone what he's come for." Hidan exclaimed.

"That's just it but I think that I may have an idea what needs to be done." Pein said then he turned to Zetsu. "Zetsu, you are the one who has been on security, I want you to be on watch as long as you can without falling asleep on us then I will send out more help to relieve you.

"Yes leader-sama." Zetsu's white side said.

"But we have an assistant that we can call up to help us as well." Zetsu's black side reminded.

"That's right." Pein put his hand to his chin thinking out loud. "Tobi will help you too. We need him now as an extra pair of eyes. The more the better."

"We will go keep watch now." Zetsu said.

"Very well. As for everyone else, I want you to be on guard at all times. At this point we don't know what to expect. You are dismissed." Pein said and everyone headed for the door. "Deidara, can I speak with you and Naiya?"

"Yes leader-sama." Deidara said standing before his desk with Naiya beside him. Pein waited for everyone to leave the room before he started speaking. "I didn't want the others to hear about this but I think I know what Orochimaru might be after." Pein said then Deidara looked at him puzzled and with a slight terrified look in his eyes.

"What is it, yeah?"

"I think he may be after Naiya." Pein said. Deidara's heart sank when he heard this.

"I was afraid of that, yeah."

"I don't know what to do with her. I don't know if you two should run and go into hiding somewhere else or I don't know if you should stay here with her where we can all keep a watchful eye out on her. She is a Jinchuriki so she is worth a lot on Orochimaru's terms. We can't let him have her, who knows what he will do with her." Deidara's hands turned into fists at his sides.

"If Orochimaru touches her," Deidara began, "I'll kill him."

"Don't underestimate Orochimaru, Deidara. He's very powerful and he has mastered countless numbers of jutsu."

"I'll create art so great, that even Orochimaru couldn't survive it." Deidara grinned smugly then he looked down at Naiya. "I'll protect you, Naiya."

"It's your choice if you want to go into hiding with Naiya or if you want her to stay here where we all can keep watch over her."

"I think that we should stay here, un. It maybe a while before he sends out more ninja after her so I think that we will have lots of time before we have to hide her."

"Very well. Until we know anything more about Orochimaru, Naiya is to stay inside at all times. We can't afford to have our cover blown because of a careless mistake." Pein said and Deidara nodded at took Naiya back to his room.

"What did leader-sama want?" Sasori asked as soon as Deidara and Naiya entered his room. Deidara looked around for anyone who might be eavesdropping.

"Leader-sama suspects that Orochimaru might be after Naiya because of her Jinchuriki, yeah." Deidara said quietly.

"I figured as much." Sasori began. "Orochimaru will stop at nothing to get what he needs. He probably wants her for her Jinchuriki so he can use it as a test subject."

"I promised Naiya that if Orochimaru touched her, that I would kill him, un. Maybe I should take this time now to teach Naiya to talk again."

"That may be a good idea." Sasori said.


	6. Chapter 6

About two weeks later, there was no sign of Orochimaru or his followers near the Akatsuki base but that doesn't mean that they would let their guard down as for Deidara, he was still making no progress with teaching Naiya to talk but today was the day that Naiya would have her bandages removed from her eyes. Deidara, Pein and Naiya were in the Akatsuki's medical room preparing to take the bandages off. Pein set cleaning ointment and cotton swabs next to Naiya to clean the outside of her eyes off.

"Are you two ready?" Pein asked and Deidara nodded excitedly. "Alright." Pein took scissors to Naiya's bandages and cut them, then he began to unwrap it to reveal that there was dried blood on her closed eyes. Pein poured the cleaning ointment in a dish and soaked part of the cotton swab in it then applied it to Naiya's eyes to take off the dried blood as for her eye balls, they were clean. "Alright I think that that should be it then." Pein said setting the cotton down. He didn't bother to clean up, he just left the room. Deidara waited for Naiya to open her eyes eager to see them. Naiya opened her eyes for what seemed like forever for Deidara, as they were opening, Deidara's heart pounded nervously when her eyes began moving.

"Un," Deidara said as they were still opening. Once they were fully open, Deidara gasped. "They're beautiful... it's art." Naiya's open eyes revealed two deep brown eyes staring back at him. Naiya also gasped when she had finally seen Deidara for the first time. Naiya raised her hands to reach up and feel Deidara. She put one hand to his hair and ran her fingers through it and the other she touched his face like it was made of glass. "Naiya." Deidara smiled as he watched her eyes exploring his face. Everything was brand new for Naiya since she had never seen before in her life. "She's beautiful, un." Deidara thought. Naiya picked up one of Deidara's hands and played with his fingers then he stuck his hand's tongue out at her. He was tempted to wrap it around her hand but he feared that Naiya wouldn't like that. Suddenly Deidara got an idea that he should show Naiya what everyone in the Akatsuki really looked like. "Come on, let me show you everyone else." Deidara said helping Naiya up then they walked into the TV room. "Hey Naiya can see now, un." Everyone sat up and looked at her as if they had never seen her before.

"She has nice brown eyes." Kakuzu said.

"Leader-sama did a good job on her." Kisame said looking at Naiya's eyes.

"That he did." Itachi said standing behind Kisame. Hidan stood with everyone else but he just smiled and didn't say anything.

"Too bad Zetsu isn't here to see this." Kisame said.

"Maybe Orochimaru wants Naiya for her looks." Hidan finally said. Deidara frowned at Hidan. "What? It's just a joke." Hidan shrugged.

"Well I'm going to show master Sasori." Deidara said pushing Naiya along with him. "Master come and look, un." Sasori watched as Naiya walked in the room with Deidara who was smiling the whole time since Naiya got her bandages taken off. He examined her beautiful brown eyes that seemed to glow in the light.

"Have her eyes always been brown?" Sasori asked Deidara nodded back at him. Naiya walked up to Sasori and looked at his puppet body. All of his joints were different then everyone else's she noticed.

"Master Sasori's a puppet." Deidara said to Naiya. Deidara was standing behind Naiya and he noticed that her clothes were starting to tear. "Master, I think Naiya needs new clothes."

"Why do you say that?"

"Her clothes are tearing, hm? Do you have anything extra until I can take her shopping?" Sasori looked at Deidara and lifted an eyebrow.

"Do I look like a girl?"

"No but you're the smallest size out of all of us, your clothes might fit her the best."

"You're the one who's supposed to take care of her." Sasori blushed.

"Fine, un." Deidara said taking off his cloak then he put it on Naiya. "Looks like we're going to have to go shopping." Deidara smiled. Naiya looked at Deidara's smile then she walked over to him and watched it closely.

"No you're not." Sasori said.

"And why is that, hm?"

"May I remind you of Orochimaru." Sasori pointed. Deidara turned his head to the direction that Sasori was pointing.

"Relax, it's been weeks since the attack plus that may not have been Orochimaru. It could have been some random ninja that just so happened to be heading in the direction that our base was in."

"Deidara." Sasori raised his voice. "This is no time for jokes."

"I'm not joking, un. Isn't Naiya more important than Orochimaru?"

"He could be after Naiya." Sasori shouted cutting off Deidara from his words. "Do as leader-sama says and keep her inside. You won't forgive yourself if your carelessness is the reason that Naiya gets taken away." Deidara frowned at Sasori. "And you know I'm right." Still frowning, Deidara left the room and Naiya followed. Deidara stormed off to the TV room and lied on the couch. Everyone had left the room since he had been in there previously. Naiya slowly came in and she could sense Deidara's anger so she went over to comfort him. Deidara pouted while looking at the ceiling thinking about what Sasori said.

"Master can't always tell me what to do." He said with his nose out of joint then he looked to Naiya who was sitting right beside him starring at him. He couldn't frown when he looked at her. A smile was forced on his face naturally and he stroked her hair. "Naiya, I want to take you out to show you the world but master Sasori and leader-sama says no." Deidara wasn't used to Naiya staring at him but he didn't mind it. "But master is right, if I was the reason that you got taken away, I wouldn't forgive myself. I would stop at nothing to get you back." Deidara's face fell back to being serious. Naiya lifted her arms and put them on the corners of Deidara's lips and pulled them up back into a smile. When she took her hands away, his mouth stayed that way and he laughed making her laugh slightly as well. Deidara stood up. "Okay, let's leave here Naiya. I'm going to take you to the land of fire, yeah."


	7. Chapter 7

Deidara and Naiya had been walking for days towards the land of fire and in between they had stopped to rest. He left his robe behind so that he would not draw other people's eyes towards them and he could avoid Orochimaru better that way. Deidara wanted to take Naiya here to take her shopping for new clothes and to show her what the world looks like since Naiya had been trapped inside her house for nearly her whole life, and now that Naiya could see, it would be more meaningful for her to be outside in the world. Naiya was practically skipping there because she was so excited to go out and explore other places with Deidara. Over the time that Naiya was taken in by the Akatsuki, she had developed a bond with Deidara, he was the only one that she wanted to be around and she trusted him the most out of anyone because he had always been so gentle with her. The wind began to pick up and it blew sakura pedals through the air and scattered it across the land. Naiya danced and twirled through the field in the storm of graceful pedals that were falling from the sky until one landed on the tip of her nose, she stopped to examine it. It was soft like silk.

"That's a sakura pedal, they normally grow and fall off the trees this time of year. When this happens that mean that the time of year is spring time." Deidara explained. Naiya tried to mouth the word sakura but no sound would come out of her mouth. Another pedal fell right in front of her nose as she inhaled, tickling her nose she sneezed and the pedal jumped off. Deidara laughed and Naiya joined. "We're almost there, yeah." Deidara smiled. "The land of fire is a great place to be. It is the most populated out of all provinces. The people there are nice but it can get very busy. There's lots of attractions like movie theatres, carnivals, shopping districts, casinos and you can even go to watch the ninja exams." He said then he looked up from Naiya and seen the rooftops of the nearby towns in the land of fire. "Look there it is now." Deidara pointed. Naiya looked in that direction and smiled widely then she burst off and ran there. "Hey wait up." Deidara smiled as he took off after her. They both laughed playfully until Naiya got through the village gate.

"Hold on there." A ninja guard said stopping Naiya before she ran too far through the gate. "What is your business?" He asked.

"Oh, we're outlanders, we're just here to get some clothes, un." Deidara said.

"Very well, you may pass."

"Where do you want to go first, hm?" Deidara asked Naiya. She stood there looking at all of the tall buildings that were overwhelming because they were so tall and they just kept on going but far down the main road, Naiya spotted something, she grabbed Deidara's hand and ran down the road. "Where are you taking me, yeah?" Naiya kept on running with Deidara until she got to this one shop. She stopped and pointed inside the store. Inside was a clothing store with the most beautiful dresses that a girl could want but Naiya happened to point to one particular dress that was inside on the top shelf on display. "Okay, un, I'll go get it for you." Deidara said then he held the door open for Naiya and walked in behind her. Together, they walked over to the wall that Naiya's dream dress was on. Deidara reached up and pulled down the same dress that was on a hanger. "Here try this on. Is there any other ones here?" Naiya browsed the whole store and came back to Deidara with four other dresses to try on then a female store clerk came up to Deidara and Naiya.

"Can I help you two?"

"Yeah we just need a change room, un." Deidara answered. The store clerk took Naiya and Deidara to an empty change room and set the clothes inside.

"Uh okay Naiya, you can get changed by yourself right?"

"Does she need some help in there?" The store clerk asked and Deidara nodded. Deidara, who was already bored of shopping, sat down on a couch on the outside of a change room and waited for what seemed like forever for Naiya to come out with one dress on that she picked out. Finally she came out with the first dress that she had seen and twirled around in it in front of Deidara. His eyes lit up when she came out in a beautiful light blue and white dress. The dress as well as its color brought out Naiya's pale skin, brown eyes and green hair. It definitely was her best pick.

"It's beautiful, hm. It fits you perfectly Naiya. Let`s keep that one, un." Deidara said smiling with Naiya. She went back in the change room and Deidara waited for another forever for her to come back out with her next outfit on. After a while they were all finished in that store. The store clerk in the last store that they were in advised that Naiya should get a bra.

"Oh no, I was hoping that it wouldn't come to this." Deidara wept. For any guy, going into a women's underwear and lingerie shop is a nightmare and unfortunately for Deidara it had come true, but as nervous as Deidara was, he sucked it up and went into a ladies lingerie store and got that store clerk to help Naiya pick out a bra and suitable underwear. He felt as if he was having a panic attack when he went in and seen things with lace and frills on it. How many guys actually go into these shops by themselves or with other girls? Deidara decided to put Naiya's needs before his reputation and his dignity. If anyone else from the Akatsuki found out about this, Deidara would be made fun of forever and they would bug him about being a woman all the more.

"There are several types of bras that would fit her figure. There are some that..." The store clerk began but Deidara stopped her.

"Just pick some out and help them on her." Deidara hyperventilated as he was imagining going into the futile position. This time it really felt like Naiya was taking forever in the change room because of his deep dark fear of this shop. Other girls with friends were coming into the store and picking out pink bras with lace and were holding them up to their breasts and asked their friends what they thought about it. Soon there were girls everywhere pushing bras to each other's breasts and stretching underwear near their waist. Girls everywhere! Oh the horror!

"Excuse me." A girl said tapping on Deidara's shoulder, his head turned around his shoulders like he was a robot. "Could you help me with this?" Deidara put his head between his knees to return the blood flow back to his head. His pulse began shortening and his body grew cold. Was this death? No, it was just a death like experience commonly known as fear, he felt as if he was going to pass out. A ladies underwear store could turn the most manliest of mans into a wuss. Even Itachi, the master of torture would bow to anyone who wielded this dark power. Wait! That's it! If Deidara could manage this, then he would have bragging rights to being the first Akatsuki member to go in and survive in a ladies underwear store. This gave Deidara a boost of confidence. He could do this. Anything to be better than Itachi. This was the first step he had to take.

"Hold still." The store clerk said still in the change room with Naiya. Naiya screamed inside the change room. It seemed that even she couldn't handle being in this kind of shop. There was a crash and a couple of bangs inside there and Deidara wondered what the store clerk was doing to Naiya. She still screamed and it seemed that she was putting up a fight. Suddenly Naiya fell out of the change room with nothing on but a bra and underwear. Inside the room, the mirror was broken and there were a few dents in the wall. She lied on the floor trying to pull off her bra but little did she know that the clip was in the back. Oh no, this was it. Deidara's head began to spin, his hearing went all fuzzy. This is it, he was going to pass out. He stood there tipping back and forth and suddenly he fell to the ground completely passed out. Naiya gasped and she jumped on top of him. (good thing he wasn't awake)

Finally after a while, Deidara had finally woken up. Naiya was in the change room again still putting up a fight. She jumped out again and the lady that was in helping her also jumped out. She was very mad and was out of patience with Naiya. She held dozens of clothes hangers in her hand and started throwing them and Naiya and Deidara. Deidara grabbed Naiya's hand and booked it out of the store.

"Come on Naiya, time to go."

"And don't come back." The lady shouted.

Deidara ran with Naiya down the main road and into an alley way where no one else was. He hid with Naiya behind a dumpster where he knew that no one would bother to look. He panted heavily along with Naiya keeping watch for anyone but the coast was clear.

"That was a close one." Deidara said resting his head on the side of the dumpster and closing his eyes. When Deidara opened his eyes, he shouted because he realized that Naiya was only in a bra and underwear that they unintentionally had stolen from the store. He lost his balance and fell to the ground "Naiya put some clothes on." He said nervously but Naiya crawled towards him as he laid on the ground. He sat up and fumbled with all of the bags trying to take some clothes out but his hands were shaking making his work harder than it actually was, finally he got out the first dress that Naiya had seen and helped her to put it on. "Phew that was a close one, hm? You shouldn't walk around like that anywhere, people might think you are crazy and a perv." Deidara said seriously and Naiya tilted her head slightly with a puzzled look on her face. "Well that doesn't change the fact that I think you're crazy." Deidara laughed playfully then he patted Naiya on the top of her head making her smile with him. "You must be hungry, come on, I know this shop that sells great dumplings." He stood up and helped Naiya up and she followed him to an open shack with high curtains in front of it. Deidara lifted the curtains so that it wouldn't hit his face when they entered the building. He ordered four skewers of dumplings, two for each of them and they sat on a wooden bench outside of the shack to enjoy their snack. Naiya loved the dumplings, it reminded her of the time that she had ice cream with Deidara the first time that she met him. She smiled as she was thinking about how much closer she had become with Deidara. He looked over noticing her smiling, he decided not to say anything, instead he closed his eyes and chomped on his dumplings quietly while smiling with her.

The afternoon seemed to pass by quickly for the both of them. They had been shopping, eating precious dumplings and they even played a few games at a carnival that was being hosted in the town. Deidara had even thrown a ball at a stack of bottles to win Naiya a prize that she had spotted as they were walking. It was getting late so they decided to go back to the Akatsuki hideout before they got into too much trouble.

"That was so much fun, Naiya." Deidara said putting his hands behind his head as they were walking back. He looked down at her and seen that she was smiling back at him. Deidara had thrown their dozens of bags into the mouth of his giant clay bird that was following them before they had left the town so that they could travel light. Deidara was a little worried of what Peins reaction might be when they got back but the important thing to him was that he got Naiya out of the base and that they had a lot of fun together even through the trouble that Naiya had caused him at certain shops but never the less, Deidara had fun and he felt closer to Naiya. He also felt that Naiya was beginning to understand him more. The sun was beginning to set as they were walking and Deidara noticed that Naiya grew tired so he decided to carry her on his back as he continued to walk. Naiya had fallen asleep and leaned her head on his back. Deidara felt slightly nervous but he smiled as he continued to walk with her on his back and with the bird following close behind him. As it grew dark, the town behind them began to lit their evening lanterns so that travelers could see their destination and freely pass through.

Back at the base, Deidara had sneaked to his room with Naiya and set her down on his bed. He thought that no one was in the base but he thought wrong. Pein had Zetsu on surveillance for Orochimaru and he spotted Deidara with Naiya as they were coming home so he reported to Pein that Deidara had returned. Pein found out that they had left the day of but he patiently waited for their return so that he could punish Deidara properly. Pein slammed the door open to Deidara`s room making Naiya jump from the startling noise.

"Deidara." He shouted fuming from anger. He walked over to him and took his arm and dragged him into his office where they could talk in private. Concerned, Naiya followed him. Pein dropped him on the floor in front of his desk and closed the door behind him. He stood on the opposite side of his desk that Deidara was, facing away from him.

"Deidara," he said what seemed to be slightly calmer. "Do you remember what I told you the day that we found out that Orochimaru was after Naiya?"

"Yes." Deidara said coolly.

"Didn't I tell you not to take Naiya outside?"

"Yes." Deidara answered once again then Pein turned around and slammed his hand on his desk startling Naiya again.

"Why do you never ****ing listen to me. I told you of the dangers and deliberately said NOT to take Naiya outside. You could be costing her life as we know it. Orochimaru could have her in her sights and plan on attacking us at the right moment all because you screwed up and you didn't listen to me. You must have a good explanation for this."

"You said that we could run away from here, remember, un?" Deidara said reminding Pein of the past then he turned around again.

"Yes I did. But if that was your plan you would have told me that's what you were doing. Sasori told me of your plans plus Zetsu had spotted you as you were leaving."

"Well why didn't you stop us, hm?" Deidara said with a smartass sound to his voice. Pein abruptly turned around and punched Deidara on his cheek making him fly back, hitting the door and falling to the ground. Naiya screamed then ran to his side to comfort him. Pein walked up to them with his shadow covering their faces.

"As punishment, Deidara, you are to go with Sasori to capture another Jinchuriki and bring him here so that he will be drained of his powers. You are to capture Gaara of the Sand." Pein said. Deidara's heart fell as he realized that he would for once be away from Naiya. "You are to leave in one hour." Pein informed as he left his office leaving Deidara and Naiya on the ground.

"Mission?" He said quietly. He stood up and walked to his room, forgetting about Naiya who was in Peins office but she faithfully followed him back to his room. Deidara turned around and punched the wall near the door with his fist. "D*** you Pein." He grinded his teeth.

"I warned you." Sasori said watching him. Deidara turned to him frowning.

"You told him?"

"I couldn't not. He warned you, I warned you, that's what you get for being so careless." Sasori stood up. "Come on, we have to get ready."

"Wait a minute, who's going to take care of Naiya while I'm gone?"

"Tobi will."

"Anybody but Tobi, please, or Hidan, or Zetsu, or Kisame, or..."

"Tobi's taking care of her, leader-sama ordered it." Sasori said. Deidara turned around to Naiya and kneeled down to meet her eyes.

"Naiya, I'm going on a mission with master Sasori. Tobi will take good care of you while I'm gone." Deidara started but he stopped because he noticed a tear falling down Naiya's cheek. Deidara picked up his hand and placed it on Naiya's cheek and wiped it away with his thumb. "I'll be back, un." Deidara said getting up. Naiya also raised her hands to hug Deidara but she stopped because Deidara turned around and was already leaving so Naiya sat alone in his room. "Alright master, let's get this mission over with, hm?" Deidara and Sasori were walking down the hall towards the exit but all of a sudden Naiya came running up from behind Deidara and embraced him from his back to his stomach. She bawled trying not to let Deidara leave her. He stood there with a sore heart. This was the first time that he was leaving Naiya by herself. He too didn't want to go on the mission if it meant leaving Naiya behind without him. He turned around to face her and put his arms around her to hug her back. "I promise that I will be back, yeah." He said in a hush tone. He rubbed his hand on her back to try to comfort her as she cried in his arms. "Come on master." He let go of Naiya and opened the door to walk out. Naiya tried to run after him but Itachi and Hidan grabbed her so that she couldn't escape. Deidara closed the door behind him and Naiya escaped Itachi and Hidan's grip and threw herself to the door and screamed as she watched him walk away.


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N** : **These next few chapters contain spoilers for the canon.**

Deidara and Sasori walked until they seen Tobi on surveillance outside the Akatsuki base. Tobi always wore an orange mask that had one hole to see through and a black swirl, and black armour. He protected every inch of his skin as if he was trying to hide himself. Deidara grew angry as soon as he had seen Tobi. He made a bird and gave it life so that it could fly off and sit right behind Tobi. Without anyone realizing it, Deidara made a hand sign and exploded the clay bird that was behind Tobi, making him fall down the ledge that he was sitting on and landed face first. Deidara gave a smug grin then walked up to him to give him a lecture.

"Oh, hi sempai." Tobi waved not knowing that it was Deidara that had just threw him out of his seat.

"What do you think you're doing?" Deidara asked raising an eyebrow.

"I'm helping Zetsu-san by keeping watch for any bad guys coming towards our base."

"Aren't you supposed to be doing anything else?" Deidara glared at him irritated. Tobi looked to the ground trying to think quickly.

"Nope I don't think so." Tobi said giving a wrong answer in Deidara's eyes. At the sound of this, Deidara punched Tobi knocking him back a few feet.

"You're supposed to be watching Naiya you baka." Deidara said raising his voice. "If anything happens to her, I'll kill you." He threatened.

"Oh now I remember. I gotta go." Tobi said jumping up then he excitedly ran away to his other commitment. Deidara shook his head then he and Sasori headed off to the village hidden in the sand.

Miles and miles of traveling were spaced between the Akatsuki base and where Deidara and Sasori now stood. They wore hats to hide their faces and had a single bell hanging down from the edge and sang with every step they took so that others could hear them coming. Deidara stayed quiet the whole way there until they came to the village gate. A single villager jumped down to let them through.

"Good work Yuura, do you remember who I am." Sasori asked the traitor of the village hidden in the sand.

"Of course, Sasori." He said, then Deidara chuckled.

"If he didn't, he wouldn't have had much of a jutsu." Deidara said then Yuura lead them through the pass until they were officially in the hidden sand village.

"Are you going to be okay with just that one bag? Our opponent is a Jinchuriki." Sasori said doubting Deidara's methods.

"All of my jutsu are works of art, and I'm also carrying my specialty." Deidara said unzipping his clay pouch then he stuck his hand in it to devour the clay. "After all, we're just going up against a little shrimp, hm." They finally got to the end of the gate then they stopped to prepare themselves.

"Deidara, you will be the one battling since this is your punishment." Sasori said, Deidara's fists tightened but he did not say anything, instead he made a clay bird then expanded it on the ground and jumped on top. "Are you just about ready?"

"Okay it's ready, hm." Deidara said. "Master Sasori, you can just wait here and watch. I'll attack the village from above. What do you think of my sculpture, hm?"

"Don't keep me waiting too long, Deidara." Sasori said coldly. Deidara smiled and chuckled then he turned around and took off on top of his bird. He flew above the village hidden in the sand examining the land not really planning his attack, more so prospecting the village that to him had some artistic value. He also thought about who he was about to face up against.

"Ichibi, the Shukaku Jinchuriki, Gaara of the Desert, eh." He thought with the wind blowing his hair in front of his face. "I wonder what he'll be like." It was late in the day and he looked around with his scope to see how many guarding ninja there were looking through the skies. "One... Two... Three... There are three watching the skies. I gotta say, this village's design is pretty artistic. I bet Naiya would love to come here." He smiled sadly but he focused back to his mission. "Means it's really worth destroying." He laughed then he reached into his bag of clay. He quickly sculpted three clay spiders to drop on the village. "I should use these stealth moves, for now. He flew over the guards watching the skies and threw one clay spider near each of them. Deidara made a quick hand sign to give them life. Each of them successfully landed and then jumped on the guards' faces. Deidara chuckled.

"Whoa, what the heck is this weird thing" One said as a spider crawled up his back then the spider jumped onto his face.

"They're not weird!" Deidara responded slightly irritated. "Idiots just don't understand art, do they? I'll use your bodies to show you. Art is... a blast." Deidara said with a hand sign then the three spiders exploded on the guards faces killing them in the process. Deidara flew on the rooftop of the Kazekage's mansion then jumped off. "Infiltration successful." He said then he looked up and found Gaara standing right in front of him. Gaara's head tilted slightly while smiling.

"That's as far as you go." He said. Deidara smiled arrogantly then jumped back on his bird for battle. Gaara's sand from his gourd followed Deidara's bird through the air. He was sculpting clay trying to buy some time while avoiding the sand until the clay was ready. He also used this opportunity to examine Gaara's moves. Deidara tried to trick the sand by flying straight for the ground to lose it but the sand stopped inches before hitting the ground and continued after Deidara. This whole time Gaara stood in one spot commanding his sand without breaking into a sweat as Deidara avoided the sand but the sand was starting to catch up so he decided to try another trick. He soared down an alley, close to the ground then took a sharp turn to throw the sand off, instead the sand kept on following him but sprayed close by ninja unintentionally in the face knocking them over.

"What was that?" One ninja asked.

"Almost there." Deidara thought still moulding the clay. Suddenly, sand came in front of him as well as behind him so his only move was to go up. He did so and the sand smashed into each other making an even bigger stream of sand following Deidara. He flew up higher to test how far the sand could go from its host but no matter where he went, the sand would follow. "He's pretty good, un." Deidara said looking down at Gaara. Gaara commanded the sand to go after Deidara once again but this time, Gaara jumped on top of the sand to follow Deidara himself. "That's a pretty useful Jinchuriki. I gotta say, you noticed me pretty quickly." Deidara said trying to make conversation.

"Birds like that don't exist in this desert." Gaara said.

"I see." Deidara said cockily.

Back at the base, Naiya had been crying the whole time that Deidara had been gone and no one had a single minute of silence. Naiya was in Deidara and Sasori's room bawling heavily because of the absence of Deidara. Tobi struggled to silence her. He tried talking to her, he tried hugging her but nothing was working.

"Naiya please be quiet. If you don't stop then everyone will yell at me." Tobi said but no matter what he did, Naiya wouldn't stop of quiet down. Suddenly the door slammed open and it was Kakuzu and Hidan along with the others.

"Tobi shut that girl up, she's giving everyone a head ache." Hidan said with his hands over his ears.

"Well you see that's the problem, I kind of can't."

"What do you mean you can't? Just knock her out if necessary."

"If I did that, Deidara sempai would have my neck in between his hands strangling me!" Everyone stared at Tobi and then pushed him aside and gathered around Naiya.

"Shut up." Hidan yelled while slapping Naiya's cheek but that only made her wail harder.

"Hidan." Tobi said.

"What? It's worth a try." Hidan shrugged.

"Itachi, try a genjutsu of Deidara." Kisame said.

"Right." Itachi said making a few hand signs and before they knew it, Deidara was in front of them. Naiya was silent and she walked towards Deidara to hug him but she stopped when she was inches from him.

"What's she doing?" Zetsu asked.

"I don't know." Itachi answered. Naiya stared at the imposter with sad eyes then she started crying again.

"Oh come on." Hidan shouted.

"Well do you have any better ideas?" Itachi asked irritated above all of the commotion.

"She must have not smelt Deidara's scent through the genjutsu." Kakuzu said.

"Naiya's the only one who's not fooled by Itachi's genjutsu." Kisame laughed. Everyone tried everything to quiet Naiya down but nothing seemed to work. Eventually she cried herself to sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"I guess my stealth moves failed, hm." Deidara said to himself then he smiled while tapping the buttons on the side of his scope to get a closer look at his target. "But thanks to that, I don't have to waste time searching for you." Gaara raised his hands commanding the sand in the village to raise from the ground and created a wave of sand behind him. "As expected, he has the advantage. This could get ugly." Gaara turned the sand into a hand as the villagers threw kunai at him and his giant hand followed Deidara around the skies. "It's just about time." Deidara said stalling so that he could prepare his clay just perfectly. He watched his hands chewing the clay to get it soft enough to work with then they spit it out and he did his job of creating three birds in each clump of clay that he had. He sailed his bird close enough to the giant hand that was after him without it grabbing him so that he could throw his birds at it but it was too dangerous. He turned his bird around to look at Gaara's serious face. "Now the real show is about to start, un." He said then he tried again to get close to the giant arm then he threw three of his birds at it and they took flight and flew to their suicidal destination, as soon as they made contact, they exploded not doing much damage. "There." He said smiling as he threw the other three birds. Those birds flew right to the joint of where the arm would be and exploded causing the arm to snap off.

"He uses strange explosives." Gaara thought. "And they're a type that can be controlled from a distance."

Deidara smiled and chuckled, "Looks like I figured everything out, un." Deidara watched the ball of sand that Gaara had created around him, he also had a sand eye made above his shield so that he could see what Deidara was doing as he could not. "Exactly like an egg shell protecting the yolk. Still, it's amazing that he was able to block that attack." He stood staring at the ball of sand not realizing what was lurking behind him. Gaara had raised some sand from the village behind Deidara then it curled over him. Finally he noticed as the shadow covered his face. Gaara had created an even bigger hand that was about to swallow Deidara and his bird up. It was so big that it limited Deidara's escape.

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara shouted calling his move. Deidara immediately took action and tried to escape the swarm of sand that was after him.

"This is dangerous." Deidara said struggling to find an exit past all of the sand. Sand suddenly closed in front of him. He smiled as he sailed full speed towards it to try to bulldoze through it. His bird hit the jail of sand then quickly flew backwards and headed for another exit but it sacrificed himself as Deidara fell down freeing himself from the sand that was after him in almost all angles. He fell down back first and seen a river of sand coming directly towards him in the sky then it grabbed a hold of Deidara's foot and swung him around for a while until it threw him back towards the sandy prison that Gaara had formed in the sky that created an opening especially for him but intelligent as Deidara was, he quickly formed a clay owl and expanded it and angled it so that his body would hit and land on the top and he successfully escaped the Sand Coffin as it swallowed the smoke from his bird. Another hand flew after Deidara and the whole prison opened up to change tactics. "That sand is really ticking me off, yeah." But he smiled again and flew into the moon with the sand aggressively following him.

"That idiot." Kankuro said from the ground smiling in faith of Gaara. "No one escapes Gaara's sand!" Villagers watched Deidara in the fullness of the moon with a thread of sand metres away from the tail of Deidara's bird. It was a theatrical performance in the sky but not for the villagers entertainment, more for their anticipation of their Kazekage to pull through and save the village. Through all the tricks that Gaara had sent Deidara's way, Deidara always managed to come out on top. Gaara watched Deidara through the eye that he had created and threw his sand beside him as Deidara soared almost completely vertical from the ground. Deidara thought of his next moves as he avoided all of the storms of sand that Gaara had sent his way but suddenly, some sand had grabbed a hold of Deidara's left arm, Deidara only smiled in secret. He soared up twisting his bird around to free himself of the sand that had grasped him but the sand was being stubborn and would not let go. Gaara raised his hand and slowly moved it closer making the sand move closer to Deidara's shoulder. Deidara watched as he almost helplessly could not escape but with quick thinking, Deidara threw a millipede form of clay and wrapped it around the sand that was attached to him and ignited it to try to break it off but it only weakened. Gaara focused his eyes on Deidara knowing that he had the advantage.

"Desert coffin." Gaara said clutching his one fist that he had raised making the sand put so much pressure on Deidara's arm that it broke the bones and left a few droplet's of blood behind. Deidara soared violently trying to get the river of sand off of his arm. Deidara threw all of his body force to the opposite side that the sand had a gripped him resulting in him having to sacrifice his arm. His arm completely ripped off of his torso without the slightest scream of pain of Deidara.

"Not bad, hm?" Deidara said smiling regardless of the pain. "I see. The sand he used to crush my arm has greater speed and power than the regular desert sand." He looked behind him and seen Gaara's face through a hole that was carved through the circular shield that was around him. "According to our info... he always carries a fixed amount of sand. So that sand must already be infused with a large amount of chakra. Special sand, in other words." Deidara thought remembering Gaara's attacks earlier on in this battle. "He normally uses that sand for defence, but it can instantly change to attacking." He stopped to think. "What did they call it?" He thought hard as Gaara threw another strand of sand towards Deidara. At the last second, Deidara avoided the sand. "I remember." Deidara gathered a glimpse at the sand that he managed to avoid while smiling. "Absolute defence. That sand is his absolute defence." Deidara watched as the sand formed into a cloud then looked back at Gaara who was still sitting with a hole in his shield. "In short, that hole is from the sand he used to crush my arm." Deidara abruptly put his only hand in his clay pouch and laughed then looked at Gaara. "I only have a little bit of clay left." Deidara gazed at Gaara again with wild eyes planning his next genius attack. He smirked as his hand bit a portion of clay off that was in his pouch. "I seriously underestimated him. Guess I wasn't prepared enough. This is just like what master Sasori said."

"Are you going to be okay with just that bag? Our opponent is a Jinchuriki" Sasori asked in a flash back that Deidara remembered.

"All I have left is one pursuit-type..." Deidara smiled, "and my specialty, un." Gaara watched the clay doll that Deidara had made from afar as well as the villagers. "Yup, I'm going to destroy this village after all, yeah." Deidara continued to smile with many evil thoughts going through his head.

"Leader-sama! Leader-sama!" Tobi called as he ran through the hallway of the Akatsuki base. "Leader-sama!"

"What is it Tobi?" Pein asked with his hands over his ears from Tobi's annoyance. Tobi panted with his hand against the doorframe then stood upright.

"Leader-sama, Naiya won't eat anything. I tried feeding her but she refuses to eat. She hasn't had anything in her stomach for days now ever since Deidara sempai left." Tobi said.

"Hm, this could be a problem." Pein said.

"Itachi tried a genjutsu of Deidara standing beside her but she wasn't tricked by it."

"If Deidara doesn't come back for a few weeks longer, Naiya could starve herself to death and then we won't be able to get her Jinchuriki."

"Exactly, erm what?" Tobi stopped.

"Naiya is holder of a Jinchuriki, the tree tailed snow tiger and if we can't get her Jinchuriki, our whole mission will be for nothing."

"WHAAA? Deidara sempai put me in charge of a Jinchuriki?! He must be trying to kill me this time!" Tobi panicked.

"Shut up. She doesn't even know how to use her Jinchuriki."

"Oh, thank goodness."

"Tobi, if you have to, force food down. We can't afford to have her not eat."

"Yes, leader-sama." Tobi saluted then marched back to the room that Naiya was staying in. "Naiya, leader-sama commanded me to shove food down your throat so please don't be mad at me." Naiya looked at Tobi as he lifted a bowl with chopsticks to Naiya's mouth and she refused to let anything enter. Tobi poked her lips with it to try to open the entry way up but nothing seemed to be working. "Leader-sama would be mad at me if you didn't eat but Deidara sempai would kill me. I'm more afraid of Deidara sempai." Suddenly the door opened and Zetsu, Kisame and Hidan were at the doorway.

"We understand that someone isn't eating." Zetsu's black side said.

"We were sent on a mission here to help. Plus we are food experts." Zetsu's white side said.

"Why's Kisame and Hidan here with you then?"

"Uh, Kisame's good with food too and Hidan's the enforcer." Zetsu's white side said.

"Yeah, Hidan is the only one who could do something without feeling bad for it after words so we recruited him to help." Kisame joked seriously.

"Well let's get this started." Hidan said.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk**

"Black cloaks and red clouds." A ninja villager said looking through binoculars at the threat to their village. "Judging from the way he's dressed, the Kazekage's opponent is a member of the Akatsuki." Kankuro stood beside the ninja staring with him along with the whole village.

"Just as I thought." Kankuro said.

Gaara threw more sand barely missing Deidara but made a boomerang affect and came back to try again. Deidara's bird flew in all sorts of directions and making sudden changes in its path trying to avoid all of the sand that was flying past them. Deidara smiled and watched the sand missing and coming back.

"Gaara's using his 'absolute defence' sand to fight. "Being interrupted from below is gonna kill the fun. Plus..." Deidara said looking back at Gaara's angry eyes, "I'm sick of looking at your impassive face." Deidara threw his clay doll out then expanded it making it at least 20 times the size of the bird that Deidara was riding on. It's shadow on the village made everyone nervous and expect death. Gaara gasped when he seen the monster that Deidara had created. Suddenly, the doll lost the ability to float in the sky and gravity pulled it down towards the village. Gaara stared at it almost not knowing what to do, Deidara stood smiling evilly knowing that victory was in his hands while laughing. "I make my exploding dolls by eating clay with my hands and combining it with my chakra. My 'specialty' is infused with my highest level of chakra, C-3. Its explosive power is my greatest achievement as an artist!"

"This is bad! Everyone, retreat!" Baki, a jounin informed everyone as the doll was coming closer to the village.

"Too late." Deidara smiled pleased with his work of art. He put up his one hand and made a single hand sign. Just as the doll was at the right distance from the ground, it lit up. After it had exploded, he waited for the smoke to clear. Gaara who was clearly out of breath had blocked the doll from the village with massive amounts of sand but that did not worry Deidara. "Okay within range, hm." He grinned then he smiled even wider with his hand still in the form of the same hand sign. Gaara looked to his left and noticed a clay bird inches from his face. "Katsu!" He shouted making the bird explode right in front of Gaara lighting up the whole sky. Deidara waited for the smoke to clear once again. "Thought so. That special sand guards you right away, hm." More sand had covered the hole in Gaara's defence before the bird had a chance to explode. "But." Deidara said continuing to smirk, "... that was part of the plan." Gaara panted even more while standing inside his spherical defence and heard a slight sound then he gasped when he noticed tiny clay bugs crawling through his defensive sand. "Hmph. You may have managed to crush my left hand, but I took the opportunity to eat some of your sand and mix it with my clay. The moment you used that sand to guard yourself, it was the end of the line for you, un. Everything went like I planned." Gaara watched vulnerably as the bugs continued to crawl through his defence. Deidara raised his hand and once again made a hand sign. "Art is... Shi... a blast!" He shouted exploding the bugs making Gaara's defence morphed from the impact of the explosion. Sand spilled down and chunks fell from around Gaara as he laid in the sky. Deidara couldn't help but laugh and smile. He thought that he was that much closer to seeing Naiya again. "If I set off an explosion in close range, you'd use the gourd's sand you used to crush my arm so quickly to guard yourself. That was also my last bomb." Deidara thought while holding his shoulder from the pain of losing his arm. "In order to get in close enough, I had to create an opening. That's why I dropped my 'specialty' on the village. "Guess I should fetch him." Deidara said beginning to fly closer to him but he suddenly stopped his bird as he noticed Gaara still conscious and doing something. "So that's what he's doing."

"What's this?" A villager asked.

"He's using the last of his power to move the sand away from the village." Another responded. "So the village won't be damaged."

"As expected of the Kazekage." Deidara grinned. "It'd be easier to just let it fall." Deidara stood watching forgetting about the village. Some ninja began firing arrows at Deidara but he just smiled and easily evaded them. Thousands were flying through the sky but he kept his cool. "You're attacks are pointless, hmph." He said with the village not hearing. The village began firing arrows with explosive tags on them at Deidara but he still smirked. "Like I said, pointless, un!" He said louder, then one exploded near him and easily avoided the next wave of attacks. What was the village thinking, he was the explosion master. "So they planned ahead a little, yeah." Deidara soared through the mess of explosions in the sky then remembered Sasori's impatient behaviour. "If I keep master Sasori waiting any longer, he's gonna be real ticked at me, plus the sooner I get outta here, the sooner I can see Naiya... I wonder how Tobi's doing with her?" The villagers angled the arrows so that they fired upwards then showered down on Deidara but he managed to escape those easily as well but barely. He seen Gaara still with sand dripping off of him in the sky then he smiled at his target and went straight for him. Gaara lost nearly all of the sand that was supporting him in the sky and fell towards the ground with his head first, but Deidara managed to prevent that by his bird catching Gaara in its tail then it wrapped it around Gaara to keep him there all while avoiding the exploding arrows that were being fired towards him. "Not killing him was more difficult than I thought." Deidara looked back at Gaara's cracked skin as he began to fly back to Sasori. "Mission accomplished, hm" He nodded. He turned toward to where the bird was going for a while then he looked back and seen a single arrow dashing right towards him. "Whoa!" He said managing to avoid that one then it exploded right above him. He just smirked as he watched the explosion of art that was right above him. Soon enough Deidara had landed the bird on the outside of the village gates where Sasori had been waiting impatiently this whole time. "Our mission has been complete, un."

"What the h*** is your problem? She's still not eating." Hidan said heated from impatience.

"Everything we give her, everything she rejects. What else is there to do?" Kisame wept.

"She's impossible." Zetsu spazzed.

"Wait guys." Tobi tried to stop.

"I think I have an idea." Hidan began. "Kisame, hold her mouth open." Kisame stood over Naiya who was laying on a bed and be put his two hands in her mouth and forced it open. "Good, now it's my turn."

"Wait guys I think we shout stop..."

"Shut up Tobi, I think this is it." Hidan said picking up the chopsticks with noodles between it. Hidan lowered it down to Naiya's mouth. Naiya struggled to closed her mouth and began to whine. Hidan laughed slightly as he moved the noodles down her throat. Kisame was finally able to let go and Naiya choked on the unwanted food.

"I think it's working." Zetsu said stupidly. Suddenly, Naiya was beginning to transform into the three tailed beast.

"I told you this was a bad idea." Tobi said.

"Whaaa!" Everybody shouted in the room. Kisame, Zetsu and Hidan went for the door to leave Tobi to fend for himself.

"Wait where are you going?"

"Away from her, she was your problem to begin with and she's your problem now. Plus Deidara ordered you to take care of her." Hidan said then he left with the others and closed the door behind them. Tobi turned his head from the door back to the beast that was growing in front of him.

"YYAAAAA!" Tobi shouted as Naiya was about to attack him with one of her tails.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"You're late." Sasori said what sounded calmly but his voice only grew. "I told you not to make me wait!" He swung us puppets tail at Deidara angrily but Deidara easily ducked to avoid it then he stood back up.

"Give me a break! This guy was pretty strong, heh." He said and Sasori only frowned at him.

"That's why I told you to properly prepare yourself."

"And your preparations are...?" Deidara asked doubtfully.

"They're perfect." Sasori shouted. "I had a plenty of extra time to work on them." Deidara turned his head looking back at Gaara not really listening to Sasori's words. "And unlike you, I'm fully prepared."

"Well, let's get out of here, hm?" Deidara said jumping off his bird to walk with his master and his bird followed with them. Sasori looked back to the village.

"I'm never coming back to this place again." Sasori said and Deidara took out his Akatsuki hat and put it on his head to cover his identity.

"Come on, let's get back so I can see Naiya.

After a few minutes of walking in the sand, Sasori stopped making Deidara stop in front of him wondering why he had stopped.

"Huh? What's wrong, master Sasori?" Deidara asked turning around to face him.

"I didn't think someone would be following us." Sasori said.

"Wait." An unknown voice called from behind. They both looked over and found Kankuro standing there by himself.

"Huh?" Deidara said again.

"I found you." Kankuro said then he looked up at Gaara who was still unconscious on the birds tail. "I'll be taking Gaara back now." Deidara frowned and grinded his teeth. The three stood watching each other for a tense moment all with frowns on their faces except Sasori's expression who has never changed this whole time.

"Deidara, go ahead." Sasori finally said then he jumped in front of Kankuro. Kankuro's eyes shifted to see Deidara standing behind Sasori.

"If I'm not mistake, that guy over there was the one who used the weird bird and kidnapped Gaara. So then this guy must be the one who set up the trap in the village." Kankuro thought while grapping two of his three scrolls that were tied to his back. Using them he summoned his puppets. "Sanshouo." Sasori watched Kankuro but even though Deidara's eyes were in his direction, his mind was elsewhere.

"This guys holding us up. I gotta get back to the base. If Tobi did something to Naiya, I'll explode him so far away, he will be lost forever."

"Puppet jutsu?" Sasori thought relieved Deidara only chuckled once then turned away with a smug smile on his face then jumped on his bird.

"All right, we're going on ahead. Can't afford any more delays. Naiya could have killed Tobi by now, hm."

"I'm not letting you go." Kankuro said throwing his favourite puppet crow at him. Deidara turned around and gasped as the wooden figure headed straight for him but Sasori easily stopped it with his puppets tail. He had it in a way that if he squeezed it, it would break apart into useless pieces of wood. Kankuro stood speechless. Sasori finally took off his had revealing his puppets head that he hid inside of.

"I don't like waiting for people and I don't like making them wait." He said turning towards Kankuro. "This ends right now." Sasori said.

"He stopped my best attack." Kankuro thought but Sasori overheard.

"You mean that little fly? Looks like it's stopped."

"Now I remember who this guy is." Deidara began while watching the two stare each other down. "This Jinchuriki has some siblings. And I heard that one of them uses the puppet jutsu. This guy's gotta be him. I think his name was Kantarou... or maybe Kanpachi?"

"It's Kankuro." He shouted not in the mood for mind games. Sasori dropped Kankuro's puppet slightly breaking it but it reassembled and headed back to Deidara but Sasori swatted it out of the air and onto the ground. Kankuro glared at Sasori wishing to kill him.

"Didn't I say that I'm your opponent?" Sasori began. "Quit gawking at me and move it!" Sasori commanded Deidara edgily. "You're in the way." Deidara snapped out of his train of thought and turned around.

"Right, right. I'll head out, then, hm" He said then his bird took flight and headed away.

"Wait." Kankuro said throwing his puppet at Deidara again but once again Sasori blocked it and tackled it with his tail.

"Don't make me say it again. I am your opponent."

"My only option is to take on this guy first, then continue the pursuit." Kankuro concluded. Deidara managed to put some air between him and the fight that was going on down below then he turned back to watch.

"You're one unlucky guy. Master Sasori is the worst possible opponent for you, yeah." Deidara said continuing to fly away. While seeking shelter, Deidara managed to find a rock that was protective against the waves of sand that the wind was creating. He stood behind it while his bird with Gaara stood on the top. "Man this mission is turning out to take forever. At this rate, it will be next week before I can see Naiya again, hm."


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"You're late master Sasori, un." Deidara mocked because Sasori lectured Deidara for being late when he was fighting Gaara. "I thought you hated to keep people waiting."

"I do, but I had enough fun to make up for it." Sasori said with pleasure. Deidara scowled.

"Say what?"

"You have no reason to be angry. After all you managed to secure your target, the one tailed. After we finish dealing with this one, we have to get mine."

"But master Sasori, the person you're going after..." Deidara began and Sasori sighed.

"Yeah, I still don't know where he is. It would be a lot simpler if he'd come to us."

"Ah, definitely." Deidara said turning away from Sasori. "What type of Jinchuriki was he again?"

"It doesn't matter. No one will complain as long as I get one." Sasori said.

After more days of walking, they finally neared the base. Deidara's bird flew close behind still holding Gaara in its tail. Deidara looked down on the sealed base entrance relieved that he was finally home to be with Naiya, he would just have to take care of Gaara's Jinchuriki first.

"We're here, hm." He beamed at what Naiya's reaction would be when she seen him again.

"Let's go." Sasori said knowing what Deidara would do first when he got through the entry way. Deidara, Sasori and the bird came closer to the entrance and Deidara unsealed the giant rock that was blocking their way by raising it until they stroll past the gate. Pein was there to greet them with his back turned to them.

"You're late." He said in a deep voice while turning to them. "Prepare yourselves, now."

"The Jinchuriki was stronger than I thought." Deidara said as the rock closed the entry behind them. His bird set down the lifeless Gaara on the floor then vanished as its mission was finished. Pein made three hand signs then slammed his hand on the ground next to Gaara releasing a giant statue behind them. The same statue that was used in the attempt to drain Naiya of her powers. Deidara and Sasori took their hats off at the same time realizing that they didn't need them anymore. The statue had nine eyeballs that were currently closed and a scroll locked in between its upper and lower teeth. As it came further out of the ground it revealed the same hands that everyone had stood on before. Giant chains hung from the giant hands and dangled as it continued to rise from the earth.

"Assemble." Pein ordered. Everyone except for Deidara and Sasori stood on their same finger as holograms but Deidara and Sasori stood whole. Sasori jumped on his finger as for Deidara he stood in the same spot looking at the ground deep in thought. Pein turned to him. "Well, what's taking you Deidara?"

"Oh, I want to see Naiya, before I do anything, yeah."

"Very well, but don't be too long. We have to do this before anyone finds out." Pein said and Deidara nodded then he rushed over to his room but stopped right in front of the closed the door. He put his hand on the knob and opened it with anticipation. He opened the door slowly and silently just in case Naiya was sleeping. Naiya sat on the edge of the bed looking out the closest window still not aware that Deidara was home. He set his empty clay pouch down and caught Naiya's ear. She quickly turned over to meet his presence but she made little reaction. Deidara was puzzled.

"Naiya, it's me, Deidara, un." Deidara said gently. Naiya suddenly got up and ran over to Deidara realizing that this time and not a genjutsu. Deidara embraced her in his one arm as she squeezed him back crying happily. Deidara pressed his body against hers and Naiya did the same. It was a tender moment between them because it has been over two weeks since they last embraced. Naiya pulled her head away from his chest and looked up to him with tearful eyes. Deidara sniggered. "Naiya, you don't have to cry anymore, I'm home." He said wiping her tears just the same as two weeks ago. "I missed you so much. I hope I never have to leave you again." Deidara was interrupted by some giggling out of the corner of his ear. He turned his head and found Tobi behind them.

"Did Deidara sempai miss Naiya?" Tobi giggled. Deidara grimaced at Tobi but turned back to Naiya who was beaming at him.

"Tobi," Deidara began quietly. "Thank you... for taking care of Naiya." He finished.

"Oh no problem, she was fun to be around." Tobi shrugged while remembering her crying for endless amounts of time and being stubborn about not eating and transforming into the Jinchuriki and giving him a whooping but other than that, Tobi had fun.

"Deidara!" Pein shouted. Deidara gasped recalling what Pein told him to do.

"Oh, right. I have to go back now for a while. Tobi, just a little longer again okay?" Deidara asked leaving the room not waiting for Tobi's answer.

"Sempai! Wait!" Deidara ran back to the room where everyone stood waiting for him.

"Sorry." He said jumping on his assigned finger.

"Now, let's begin." Pein said just before jumping on his finger. Every Akatsuki member made the same hand sign to perform this jutsu. Pein opened up the mouth of the statue making a giant scroll fall down but it was still chained to the statue. "This is going to take us three days and three nights. Everyone, be careful with the body. I also want Zetsu to keep watch on the area outside. Use your longest range." Pein ordered

"I know." Was all Zetsu could say.

"Three days." Kisame began. "Shouldn't we give it more time, since Orochimaru is no longer here?"

"If that's how you feel, then start working on it already." Pein responded.

"That's right." Itachi added while smirking.

"Fair enough." Kisame half sighed as he was being made a fool of.

"Let's do it, un." Deidara said with his eyes closed already focusing his chakra. Everyone focused their chakra with their eyes closed and the tip of the statues fingers lit up with their symbol that was on each of their individual rings that each member wore on their finger that they stood on. Pein's read Zero, Deidara's blue, Sasori white, Itachi crimson, Zetsu's boar, Kisame south, Kakuzu north, and Hidan's was orb.

"Phantom Dragon's Nine Seals." Pein called the jutsu to their unison. At that point, nine dragons came out of the mouth of the statue and hit Gaara in the chest and began to suck his Jinchuriki's power out of his body and into the mouth of the stone statue opening up its nine eyes.

"There are enemies closing in on the base." Zetsu informed.

"Enemies?" Deidara asked opening his eyes back up looking at Zetsu. "You mean like Orochimaru?"

"And they seem to be fairly powerful. One of them is called Might Guy."

"Who's that?" Pein asked.

"A skilled Konoha jounin who uses taijutsu. Don't take him lightly." Itachi answered.

"Ah, that wild animal again, eh?" Kisame began. "We'll use that jutsu." Pein looked around at everyone.

"All right, then let me go." Hidan said. "I've had a h*** of a time finding my Jinchuriki and it's starting to p*** me off."

"No, I'll go." Kisame demanded. "I've got a bit of a score to settle with him."

"That's fine." Pein said accepting Kisame's terms. "The jutsu suits you better anyway, considering you have the greatest amount of chakra in Akatsuki, Kisame."

"Indeed." Kisame laughed.

"Even so, I'll need about thirty percent of your chakra."

"My, my. It looks like I can finally get even with him for kicking me." Kisame thought remembering the past.

"There are more coming." Zetsu said stopping Kisame's thought.

"It's been a bit crazier this time around, Deidara." Pein said looking in his direction. Deidara choked on his words.

"Well, this Jinchuriki was stronger than the other two, un." He finally said.

"I tried to tell you, your jutsu's aren't good for stealth missions." Sasori mocked again but Deidara laughed.

"Hah, call me crazy, but I remember your traps being pretty excessive, too, master, hm." Deidara scoffed at Sasori as he began to grow angry.

"What did you say?" Sasori asked while building up anger.

"Shut up, the both of you." Pein interrupted. "Just focus on the jutsu so we can get this over with. Who else is going?"

"Can I go this time?" Hidan asked.

"It's more Konoha shinobi." Zetsu said. Itachi looked over at Hidan with his red sharringan eyes. Pein squinted his eyes together slightly.

"It's decided, then." Pein said. The statue's nine eyes were fully open and only two of them actually had pupils and irises until Gaara was fully drained of his Jinchuriki then the statue began to grow another pupil as they were about to do their final stage. "We're about to enter the final stage." This was it, they were almost done taking Gaara's Jinchuriki then they would be off finding other Jinchuriki so that they could continue with this process.

"What should we do about those annoying flies?" Kisame asked smirking.

"They were faster than I thought." Zetsu examined.

"Not a problem. We've delayed them enough." Pein said. "That, and we have a back-up plan."

"Meaning the two of us will have to finish them off, yeah." Deidara asked.

"That's right." Pein said. Deidara sighed since his mission would never be over.

"Let's hurry and get this done, Deidara. We've got some guests on the way. And we've got to make sure we're ready for them." Sasori said.

"That's right. We need to prepare a good welcome. I'll go tell Tobi to watch Naiya until I get this over with, hm?" Everyone closed their eyes as it went silent for a while but then Kisame broke it.

"They're rather annoying, aren't they."

"Man, we haven't even found our Jinchuriki yet." Hidan laughed annoyed.

"Settle down. We'll complete our mission soon enough." Kakuzu said closing his eyes and focusing his chakra even more.

"Enough with the idle chatter, focus!" Pein said impatiently. As soon as the statue gained it's pupil, the chakra flow stopped because they were finally finished after three days of steady chakra flow. "It's finished." The statue had now three full eyes. After they stopped their jutsu, all of the Jinchuriki had left Gaara's body causing him to die and everyone just stared at his corpse.

"Whew." Sasori finally said.

"It ended up taking three days and three nights, un."

"It's exhausting every time we do it, isn't it?" Kisame asked not really exhausted since he had plenty chakra to spare.

"Seriously, that took forever." Hidan said cracking the kink out of his neck.

"Good job, everyone." Pein said then he looked down at Gaara's carcass. "It's gotten noisy outside, hasn't it?"

"It seems that they've made it here." Kisame smirked.

"Which group, hm?"

"Was it the one that master Kisame was holding up? Or is it..." Deidara wondered.

"It's both of them." Zetsu said opening his fly trap from around his head.

"So they both made it here at the same time. However..." Pein said then he stopped and looked at Gaara's corpse again. "It's unfortunate. They're a bit too late."

"There's one more Jinchuriki here, right?" Sasori asked then laughed violently then he turned to Itachi. "Don't think poorly of me, Itachi." Itachi said nothing.

"So then, it's about time we go. It's getting a bit noisy outside, after all. And we have to finish our work up here, too." Pein ordered.

"Exactly." Zetsu said. "What are we doing about those guys outside?"

"Well, we don't even know if they can make it inside or not." Kisame calculated.

"Don't underestimate them." Itachi cut in. "You should know that." Kisame just laughed.

"Well. I'll acknowledge their brute strength." Kisame roared with laughter.

"Sasori! Deidara!" Pein finally said.

"Hm?" Deidara groaned while turning to the leader.

"Take care of the guys outside."

"Yup, so that's how it's going to be after all, hmph." Deidara smiled then he glared at Pein knowing that he was trying to aggravate him. Pein watched Deidara's reaction.

"But take the Jinchuriki alive."

"I know." Sasori said.

"The rest are dismissed."

"Let's go!" Kakuzu said to Hidan then the two's holograms vanished.

"Well then, we'll go too." Kisame said waiting for Itachi but Sasori stopped him.

"Itachi, just what type of person is this Jinchuriki for the Nine-Tails?" Sasori asked waiting for an answer but Itachi said nothing, instead he looked back at Sasori with dark eyes. Sasori glared back. Finally Pein broke the silence.

"Tell him." Pein vanished. Itachi smiled.

"He's the one who screams and charges first." Itachi said when Pein was gone.

"What the heck?" Sasori said confused.

"Couldn't you be a little more specific, un?" Deidara asked but Itachi and Zetsu vanished before answering. Deidara scowled at the ground then laughed. "Oh my."

"So that's that." Kisame finally said then followed Itachi. Sasori just cursed Itachi.

"Deidara, go and properly prepare yourself. I don't want you to take so long this time." Sasori scorned Deidara.

"Fine." Deidara unwillingly nodded.


	13. Chapter 13

"Tobi." Deidara said walking in his room.

"Oh hi sempai. I thought that you would only be gone for a little while." Tobi said.

"There's another problem." Deidara said looking away from Tobi. Deidara stood silent for a second and Tobi just watched him. Naiya was laying on Deidara's bed awake looking up at the ceiling then she turned to Deidara's troubled face and she knew that something wasn't right.

"Well, what is it sempai?" Tobi asked. Deidara sat down by Naiya and put his hand on her knee.

"I have to leave Naiya again for a little bit, un." He finally said.

"What but you just got here. Is this what leader-sama said?"

"There are Konoha ninja outside our base and I don't know if they are after Naiya or Gaara but I want you to guard Naiya with your life, got it?" Deidara demanded. Tobi was going to make a wise crack comment but something stopped him from doing so, maybe it was the fact that he couldn't handle seeing pain in his sempai's eyes. Deidara stood with his eyes glued to the floor thinking that he might lose Naiya but hoping not. It was just him and Sasori to protect the base because everyone was out on their own missions for a week. He remembered that Orochimaru was after Naiya too and would stop at nothing to get her.

"Uh, sempai." Tobi finally said but Deidara said nothing in return. Naiya, feeling Deidara's heavy heart put her head on his shoulder to try to comfort him then he smiled realizing that they were Konoha ninja and they were more than likely to be after Gaara. Naiya was safe today. But he didn't want to leave her again but we would have to if he wanted to protect her. Deidara smiled at her to show her that he was alright and put his arm on her other shoulder that wasn't touching him. Tobi watched the two smile at each other clueless of Deidara's feelings for Naiya and clueless about Naiya's thoughts.

"Well, I better get going." Deidara said getting up and walking over to the door. Before he walked all the way out, he turned around and looked back at Naiya. Tears were starting to come to Naiya's eyes. He walked back to Naiya and kneeled down in front of her and took her hand. "I will be back soon. I promise, yeah." He said. Naiya wiped her own tears and nodded. Deidara got up again and left the room. Naiya's face dropped to the ground once Deidara had exited the hallway.

"Don't worry Naiya, sempai will be back." Tobi said trying to encourage Naiya, she looked at him and tried to say Deidara's name but no sound would come out of her mouth.

Deidara walked back to Sasori who stood waiting near the entry way for the Konoha ninja to come through. Deidara nodded at his master then sat on Gaara's carcass making it look like they weren't waiting. Finally four ninja broke through the entrance and all gasped when they seen Deidara and Sasori watching them.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"We're too late." Kakashi, the jounin said. There was a long and awkward silence between all of the ninja. Sasori stood eyeing an old lady that stood on the far left of all the ninja that had just entered like he had seen her before. He clearly despised this woman.

"Sasori." The old lady thought. Naruto was the boy who the Akatsuki were after because of his coveted powerful Jinchuriki and he was the one that Itachi described to Sasori. Naruto's teeth pressed together when he had seen Deidara sitting on Gaara.

"You son of a b****!" He yelled. "Where the h*** do you think you're sitting?!"

"Hmph. There's no mistaking it, yeah." Deidara began smirking. "He's the Jinchuriki. The first thing he'll do is scream and charge at you. Itachi actually described him quite accurately, hm." Deidara looked at his master who was still glaring intensely at the old woman.

"Gaara! How can you be asleep at a time like this?!" Naruto shouted clueless that Gaara was really dead. He waited for Gaara to respond but nothing happened. "Stand up!" Naruto kept on shouting at the lifeless corpse but nothing happened. Kakashi and the young girl that assisted them; Sakura looked at him for they had realized that Gaara was gone. "Hey, Gaara, are you listening?! Stop it already!"

"Enough Naruto." Kakashi finally called out. Naruto's hands formed a tight fist as he began to hate the two Akatsuki members that were idling in front of them. "You should already know."

"That's right. You don't get it, don't you? He's been dead for a while, un." Deidara said patting Gaara on the cheek and this began to trigger Naruto's Jinchuriki. "He's definitely the Jinchuriki, yeah." Deidara nodded. Sakura looked over to the old lady who was staring at Sasori with thoughtful eyes.

"Give him back." Naruto threatened. "Give back Gaara, you bakas!" Naruto was about to attack without thinking but Kakashi stepped in front because he knew what kind of trouble Naruto would be in if he made a wrong move.

"Calm down. If you charge right now without thinking, we're all dead." Kakashi warned. Naruto shifted his eyes from Sasori, to Deidara then to Gaara. Sasori finally moved his eyes away from the old lady to Deidara.

"Hm? What's wrong, master Sasori?" Deidara asked.

"I'll take him." Sasori said looking at Gaara.

"Huh?"

"It seems that this Jinchuriki wants to take him back."

"Looks like it, hm?" Deidara said looking at what he was sitting on.

"I believe the guy on the left is the one that broke in and took the Kazekage." Kakashi thought to himself while looking at Deidara's cocky grin then he quickly transferred his sights to Sasori. "Meaning the other one is the puppet-master who seriously injured Kankuro." Kakashi looked at the old lady. "Her grandson, Sasori?"

"Master." Deidara started taking Sasori's eyes off of the old lady. He grinned. "You might get p***** at me for saying this, but..." Deidara's grin turned into a wide smile. "I'm going to fight the Jinchuriki, un." Sasori sighed.

"Each of us gets our own. Don't get cocky, Deidara."

"With art, you must constantly seek greater and greater stimulation, or your ability to appreciate it will dull. I've heard rumours that the Kyuubi Jinchuriki is pretty powerful, hm." Deidara said looking at his hand that was chewing on a ball of clay then he looked up grinning. "He'll be perfect for my art, yeah."

"What?" Sasori said. "You call those explosions "art"? Art is something that endures the test of time beautifully and gracefully. True art is eternal beauty." Sasori concluded. Deidara and Sasori were so deep into their debate about art that they had almost forgotten about their company.

"Eternal beauty? Master, I respect you as a fellow artist, but art is something that blossoms for an instant before withering away, hm."

"What did you say?" Sasori said slightly irritated. "Deidara, apparently you don't understand what true art is."

"That would be you, master, yeah." Deidara said trying to cause a roaring argument.

"Eternal beauty is the only true art."

"That's absurd! Art is beauty that lasts for just a moment." Deidara said. Naruto was fractious about them arguing and not focusing on the real problem so he took out a scroll that summoned a giant windmill and threw it at Sasori but Sasori easily without having to move his eyes blocked it with his tail and continued arguing gaining more rage with Deidara.

"Are you trying to p*** me off?" Sasori said to Deidara.

"That's why I said that this would probably p*** you off, hm."

"You should know what happens when I get angry!" Sasori said pointing the tip of his poisoned tail at Deidara.

"He stopped the shurikin without even having to look at it." Sakura thought.

"So his puppet mastery remains as skilful as ever." The old lady remembered.

"What did you say, Deidara?" Sasori continued. Deidara looked away at his masters threat not really caring then he stood up still grinning.

"To me, the essence of art is..." Deidara began looking at his hand that finally spat out the clay then he closed his hand over it and formed it into a bird. "explosions!" He threw the bird up and made the same had sign as he does then he expanded the bird to be large enough to ride on it. The other ninja watched what Deidara had done with open mouths. Their jaws dropped when the smoke cleared and a giant bird had become of it. It's wings expanded ready to take flight. "It's completely different from your silly puppet shows, hm." Deidara said as his bird swallowed up Gaara. Sasori, enraged, threw his scorpion tail to Deidara's face but he avoided it by jumping on his bird that had already taken flight. "Later, master." Deidara said taking flight hopping that Naruto would follow him. His bird swallowed Gaara until it was just his legs sticking out to aggravate Naruto then he flew for the exit. "You'd better follow me, Kyuubi Jinchuriki."

"Wait, d*** you!" Naruto shouted while running after Deidara like he had expected.

"Nice!" Deidara thought.

"Naruto!" Kakashi called while running after Naruto. Deidara looked down and noticed Kakashi nearby.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: This Chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"Tsk, he's coming too?"

"Give Gaara back!" Naruto shouted.

"Hmph." Deidara laughed. Kakashi lifted his headband that was covering his left eye revealing a sharringan like Itachi's. He also noticed that the Kyuubi was coming out of Naruto even more. Deidara's hand spat out a ball of clay and he began to mould it.

"I'll save Gaara!" Naruto shouted jumping after Deidara but he just smiled and laughed. When Naruto was close enough to Deidara, he moved his bird away so that Naruto missed it making him run into the cliff beside them. Deidara held a small bird in his only hand then threw it at Naruto but Kakashi penetrated it with a shurikin.

"Katsu!" Deidara called exploding the bird. Another bird came out of the smoke in the air and Kakashi threw another shurikin at it. "You shouldn't be worth fighting if that's all it took." Deidara said. Naruto punched through the rocks that had fallen on him in the cliff.

"I won't let you have Gaara!" He shouted.

"I'll take Gaara back!" Naruto yelled.

"You're weird, for a Jinchuriki." Deidara chuckled. "I've heard that Jinchuriki are gloomy and hate people, hm." Naruto choked on what to say. "My comrades have defeated two other Jinchuriki, not counting him. It seems that neither their friends nor their villages tried to save them, un. In fact, it seems like there were people who were happy to have them gone." Deidara laughed but he remembered finding Naiya under her sheets all alone in an abandoned house in the village hidden in the snow. He wondered if people hated her because of her Jinchuriki. He was the one person that tried to save her. Deidara was the one who accepted Naiya for who she was. Her Jinchuriki was no threat to him. She wasn't the type of Jinchuriki that hated people rather she didn't even know how to control it. Kakashi and Naruto watched Deidara as his face fell deep in thought but then he remembered that he was in the middle of taking Naruto's Jinchuriki. "A kindred spirit who was hated and despised... you couldn't just ignore him, hm. Gaara... Gaara died when we removed the one tail. That's going to happen to you, soon. You hear me?" Deidara threatened.

"Give Gaara back, you baka." Naruto shouted. Deidara's bird swallowed Gaara's one leg that was hanging out of the birds mouth.

"If he comes out here, then using this guy to lure the Jinchuriki away will have been a waste." Deidara thought. He flew away with his bird to try to get Naruto and only Naruto to follow. Naruto swore as he inconsiderately followed Deidara. Kakashi was forced to follow to protect Naruto. "He's coming. Be sure to keep up." He called out to Naruto while putting his one hand into his pouch of clay. "Then I'll finish you off, hm." His hands licked it's lips as it smiled then spat out a ball of clay for Deidara to form. "Almost time."

"Wait, d*** you!" Naruto shouted making Deidara look over to him.

"I'm really lucky, getting to take out two Jinchuriki by myself, hm?" Deidara opened up his hand to divulge the three clay birds that he had formed then he threw them at Kakashi to take him out. Naruto had stopped abruptly to see if his sensei was okay but Kakashi had jumped out of the smoke and towards Deidara. "I should've known one bomb wouldn't be enough to finish the copy ninja, hm." Deidara moved aside his cloak so he could get at his clay pouch that was strapped to his right hip. "And now I only have a little explosive clay left. I wanted to lure the Jinchuriki out, but this is becoming a problem, yeah." Deidara looked behind him and found that Naruto and Kakashi were still on his tail. "If I'm gonna take on the Jinchuriki, the copy ninja will definitely get in the way. I have to find a way to separate them. Deidara opened up his hand and there were two clay spiders, the same spiders that he had first dropped in the village hidden in the sand. He dropped them and expanded them and they landed on a log that Kakashi was heading for. He exploded them but Kakashi easily avoided them. "The plan failed. Guess I have to target both of them at once." He put his hand in his pouch to find little explosive clay left. "But I don't have enough explosive clay for that. I'll need the extra batch I left back in the cave, yeah. Plus, I do have an ace in the hole, if it comes to that. I don't know what they're plotting, but lucky for me, the Jinchuriki's quite simple-minded. I'll keep him riled up so they won't have time to work out a plan. I wonder if they can match my speed." Deidara began to fly faster to test Naruto and Kakashi and it was clear that Naruto was not happy. "My, my." Deidara sighed. "At this rate, I won't be able to look master Sasori in the face. I have to use my remaining explosive clay to prove to him that I'm a true artist. And the copy ninja is in the way, hm. It took a while, but let's see you deal with this, hm!" Deidara said throwing up many bird like figures that spiralled down towards their target. From where Deidara was standing, it seemed to have worked to stop Kakashi and Naruto was still on his tail. "One down, yeah." Deidara pulled his bird over so he was just metres in front of Naruto and he hovered there to take him on. Naruto stopped on a log to face off. "Yup, it's finally just the two of us, hm." Naruto's face cringed with a lustful hate towards his prey. Naruto was slowly turning into his Kyuubi form, he had already developed fangs and his whiskers had grown, his eyes turned to a blood shot red as he frowned callously towards Deidara. He had never felt so much loath towards one person before. Deidara smirked while gaping at his face. "Don't make such a scary face. I'm letting you see your friend again." Deidara commanded the birds mouth to open and he showed Gaara forever sleeping inside. Naruto's teeth and fists pressed together until they sounded like they were cracking. "Oh, yeah. You just can't stay calm, can you? Not as a fellow Jinchuriki."

"Give Gaara back." Naruto shouted again but that never seemed to stop the antagonizing Deidara so he jumped directly at him but Kakashi had returned to stop him from making a careless mistake. Deidara gasped when he seen him back from the dead, or so he had thought.

"What? I thought I'd finally killed you, hm."

"Well, I apologize for not letting you blow me to bits." Kakashi joked. Deidara flew upwards to avoid any close combat.

"Master Sasori is gonna be angry with me for not being properly prepared again. But then again, over-analyzing and preparing for every little possibility isn't my style. One has to think on the spot and adapt to the situation. That's what makes an artist so well suited for fighting." Deidara said lifting his one hand then he placed it on his chin in a thinking position. "What to do?" Deidara thought of his battle plan while Naruto and Kakashi discussed theirs. He thought back to his fight against Gaara and how he could use those tactics for his current fight. The problem here was there was two people to eliminate, Naruto and Kakashi. Naruto should be an easy Jinchuriki to eliminate since he didn't think properly of his moves. Deidara had an idea then he began to fly away to buy him some time. He sailed his bird for a while and realized how quiet Naruto has become. "The boy has calmed down. What's he planning now, hm?"

Back at the Akatsuki hideout, it was just Tobi and Naiya in the base. Zetsu was out keeping watch over the base and everyone else had been on their own missions that Pein had assigned to them. Tobi was asleep tired from entertaining Naiya so that she wouldn't cry but she had cried so much that there were no more tears in her eyes. She missed Deidara and she had learned the emotion to be lonely for far too long in her life so she was going to do something about it. She snuck past Tobi and went out the front door and ran through the fields to find Deidara. She would look day and night it she had too. Somehow she avoided Zetsu, (some security he is) and passed anyone that was in her way. After running that seemed like forever, she stopped and fell down panting from exhaustion. She had lost a lot of weight from not eating for the whole time that Deidara had been gone and it was starting to zap her energy, since she didn't know how to control her chakra, she couldn't use that to help her with anything. She had chakra for sure because of the beast living inside of her but no one knew what kind of chakra she had and what its regular flow was. Naiya was determined enough to keep on going regardless of her physical state. Deidara wasn't too far from Naiya since he had just left the base with Naruto and Kakashi following him.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: This chapter contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

"They're still following me, yeah." Deidara determined looking back on his opponents. Deidara flew his bird, with Gaara's dead body inside of its mouth as bait, to try to bring out Naruto's Kyuubi so that he could have a chance to get it but Kakashi was following him menacingly. Kakashi used his sharringan's powers to transfer Deidara into a different dimension. He had to focus his eye on Deidara and his vision of him rippled from his slow success. Deidara watched helplessly as he began to swirl and ripple from Kakashi's sharringan. Kakashi focused his eye on Deidara's heart so that if his heart was gone, it would kill him. He followed as Deidara rode on his bird. "What... is this?" Deidara gasped. Kakashi's vision had slipped down to Deidara's only arm warping that in. Deidara frowned thinking quickly on how he can escape. He used his scope to zoom in on Kakashi and he realized that he had a sharringan like Itachi's. "An eye jutsu? Sh**!" Naruto had climbed up the cliff to let Kakashi do the dirty fighting and to not get in the way of his sharringan. Deidara flew his bird each and every way to throw Kakashi's sights off of him but it was no use.

"You're not getting away." Kakashi said. Deidara constantly swore as he was constantly fighting to get away but nothing escapes any kind of sharringan. Most of Deidara's body was warped into nothing but Kakashi began to weaken. Kakashi centred his eye to Deidara's arm since he could not hold out for much longer.

"My arm's being sucked into the dimensional space! What a jutsu!" Suddenly someone screamed from the sidelines. It was a familiar scream but no one could recall who it was. Deidara looked over and seen Naiya standing their watching Deidara helplessly. "Naiya get away from here it's too dangerous." Naruto was also on the side near Naiya and he looked over to her and seen in her eyes that she was profoundly worried for Deidara.

"Naiya?" Naruto said looking at her. Her eyes shook while watching Deidara suffer and remembered when Pein had punched Deidara and how much she felt it. This cut into her heart as she stood watching and she knew she could do nothing.

"Naiya, do you understand me. I don't want you to get hurt." Deidara said. Naiya didn't listen to what Deidara was saying nor could she understand but Naruto didn't know that she couldn't talk. Naiya jumped towards Deidara onto his bird to try to save him and tried to stop Kakashi's jutsu by throwing her body in front of Deidara. Kakashi was forced to give up because he did not want to hurt the innocent but he managed to snap Deidara's only arm off leaving him armless. Deidara shouted from the pain as blood splattered out from the area that his hand had been severed. Naiya screamed too. Deidara fell to his knees in pain and Naiya put her arm on him. Kakashi grew weary and could not perform this jutsu any longer so he had to give up and Deidara took this opening to get away. "Made it." He panted but he let his guard down and did not realize that Naruto was right beside him in the air with a clone performing a jutsu called Rasengan "Huh?" He cocked his head over to Naruto. Naruto threw a swirling blue ball of chakra directly at him so he quickly jumped and took Naiya with him by biting on to her clothes.

"Rasengan!" Naruto shouted. Naruto missed because Deidara had completely jumped off of the bird and had fallen into the trees. Naruto had managed to sever his birds head and he opened it up to retrieve Gaara's body. Deidara landed on a branch far away from Naruto but he could see him through the trees.

"What are you doing here Naiya, it's far too dangerous for you here." Deidara said worried but he noticed Naiya looking sadly into his eyes so instead he cut the lecture and smiled at her. "I missed you terribly, un." He said closing his eyes then Naiya jumped on top of him to hug him. Deidara could not hug back so instead he caressed his cheek on the top of her head. "Thanks for saving me." He whispered. Suddenly he heard Naruto shouting in the background so he looked over to him. "I thought I told you, he's already dead." He sat leaning against the tree. "Using the Kazekage as bait to draw out the Jinchuriki was a great idea, but... but I hadn't counted on him tagging along, hm!" Deidara looked at Kakashi then down at his left arm. "My left arm was destroyed by the sand Jinchuriki." He looked at his right arm. "And now that I've lost my right arm, too. I can't even use any jutsu. This is it, huh? I never thought there'd be someone that could use an eye jutsu on Itachi's level. The Jinchuriki isn't a big deal. The problem is Kakashi, yeah."

"I'll kick the sh** out of you." Naruto swore and Deidara overheard.

"Yeah, yeah." He said. "I'll fight again with you soon, hm." Suddenly Naruto appeared behind Deidara and Naiya. Deidara turned around quickly. "Sh**" he swore. Naruto punched him on the cheek making his nose bleed and avoiding Naiya and making her gasp. Deidara fell from the tree towards the ground with Naruto's clone following in the air. Naruto created more clones with his clone. Each replica of Naruto held on to his shoulder or his legs to pin him down when he reached the ground. He finally landed and shouted from pain. The four Naruto's still had him pinned down and when Deidara opened his eyes, he seen a fifth one coming from right above him. Naruto landed on him kicking Deidara as hard as he could then punched him with all of his clones together while he was still on the ground. Naiya gasped from the side and rushed down to protect Deidara again. "Naiya stay back." Deidara said in between punches again Naiya did not listen to him and threw herself in front of Deidara. Naruto accidently punched innocent Naiya and she flew back into a tree trunk and fell to the ground. Naruto stopped and looked at Naiya. "Naiya!" Deidara shouted rushing over to her. Naruto gawked at the two not knowing what to do. Naiya's eyes squeezed shut from the pain of Naruto's fist in contact with her stomach. Her arms pressed against her wound to try to put pressure on it to ease the pain. Deidara hastily rotated his head to meet Naruto's regretful eyes.

"I... I'm sorry." He stuttered.

"Don't you ever hurt Naiya again or I'll kill you." Deidara said glaring at Naruto.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."

"Get outta here!" Deidara yelled. Naruto's clone disappeared into nothing and left Deidara and Naiya alone. He looked back down to the girl. "Naiya... Naiya don't get in the way like that or you could get yourself killed." Naiya just smiled but her expression instantly changed when pain shot through her stomach. She whimpered in pain. Deidara lost both of his arms so he was at a loss of what to do so he decided to sit down with her. "We should probably get back to the base soon and get leader-sama to treat your wounds. I want to make sure that you are alright and not have internal bleeding, yeah. I also gotta get Kakuzu to sew my arms back on." Naiya picked up her hands and moved them to where Deidara's arms used to be. She started on the shoulder then she moved her hands downwards. When her hands were on his open wound, Deidara groaned slightly from the pain startling Naiya. She gasped and quickly pulled her hands away then she set them down on her lap. The pain in her stomach still hurt but she was able to bare it now that some time had passed since she tried to protect Deidara.

Naiya sat there with Deidara sitting and leaning against a tree. Her eyes fell to the ground as she was in thought that it was her fault that Deidara was hurt. She couldn't stand seeing the person she cared about most in pain. Her feeling emotional pain was worse than the feeling of being punched in the stomach. A tear rand down her cheek. After all the time that she spent crying that Deidara had left her, there was a single tear to be shed the time that she finally had seen him but in pain. Deidara noticed the tear falling down then watched it hit the ground and dissolve into it. His eyes moved from where the tear had landed back to the source. He watched another one drop and do the same thing. Deidara had a feeling that she was crying because of him but he didn't want to be the reason that she was crying.

"Naiya." He whispered looking into her eyes. Her eyes suddenly came to life when her name was called and she looked back into Deidara's eyes. His heart hammered against his chest the second that she looked into his eyes. "Don't cry, I'll be okay." He whispered. "It's my fault that he hurt you. I shouldn't have listened to leader-sama on going on this mission. If I didn't then I would still be able to hold you in my arms." He looked down but Naiya tried to prevent him from getting sad so she fell to his body and wrapped her arms around him and gripped him tight to her. Her hands clutched on his cloak like she had done the day that he left. She buried her head into his chest and tried to be as close to him as possible. A lock of Deidara's hair fell from his shoulders and into her face curtaining the tears that streamed down her face. He said nothing but instead he hugged her back with his heart rather than his hands.


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: This chapters contains spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk. (last one I promise)**

"Naiya wait here, un." Deidara said laying down in the grass. Deidara could hear the Konoha ninja that were close by, he hid under a bush with Naiya standing beside him. "Hm, looks like master Sasori finished fighting the wrinkled old hag and that little girl but why are they still alive? Master is too good to let them beat him. He rants about art being "beauty that lasts forever" and then dies a second later! You had too much faith in that form, despite how it exposed your weak spot, yeah." Deidara said pulling himself out of the bushes but he remained staring in that direction while crouching. "Oh well, it was still an artistic way to go." Naiya began to whimper suddenly and Deidara turned around to see what was going on. "What is it Naiya?" He asked. When he looked up, he seen four more Konoha ninja behind him and Naiya.

"Good work, Neji." The sensei said. A boy smiled behind him.

"Not a problem." He who was Neji said. Deidara looked at the boy and noticed his eyes.

"I see." Deidara began. "That must be the Byakugan. The eyes that are passed down in Konoha alongside the sharringan, hm. You used their powers to find my blind spot and sneak up on me. I've never seen them in person. I'd love to see firsthand how they differ from Itachi's sharringan, but right now I need to make my escape with Naiya, hm."

"With Konoha's strongest platoon, Team Guy, on your tail, there is no escape." The sensei smiled with his teeth sparkling with pride.

"That's right." Another boy said. That boy looked almost exactly like his sensei, bushy eyebrows and everything. His eyes glowed with the power of youth.

"Get ready." A girl said carrying a scroll. Deidara smirked then he jumped up to try to escape but everyone followed. Deidara managed to get a kunai in his mouth to help protect himself against flying ninja tools. He skidded backwards and leaned his head slightly to the left then to the right to block more kunai that the girl Tenten had thrown at him then he jumped up in the air. Lee, the youthful one, attempted to kick Deidara downwards but Deidara managed to avoid it by flipping towards a tree. He jumped off a tree and bounced to another and tried to run. Tenten threw a giant shurikin and it turned into four smaller shurikin and were flying to Deidara as he still jumped through the trees.

"Not too shabby." He thought while focusing his chakra into his feet to climb a tree without needing his arms. The four shurikin hit the tree but missed Deidara because he spiralled up the tree trunk to use it to is defence.

"Leaf Whirlwind." Guy shouted kicking the tree down that Deidara had landed on but he jumped down it quickly and safely landed on the ground.

"I can't outrun them all." He said running but Lee jumped in front of his path forcing him to stop.

"Here I come!" Lee called then launched a barrage of kicks to Deidara's head but Deidara managed to lean far enough to evade them. He jumped away but landed in Neji's trigram target zone. Neji leaned downwards and prepared to attack Deidara with his gentle fists. Deidara finally landed and Neji managed to hit Deidara on the cheek tossing him back into a tree. Deidara fell to the ground making Naiya scream again. Deidara looked up when he had heard her and seen Tenten with a scroll and throwing shurikin at him so he climbed up a tree again and did the same tactic. He landed right beside Naiya when he was done.

"Naiya get on my back." Deidara called. Naiya jumped on his back and wrapped her arms around his neck then Deidara took off in the trees with Naiya locked onto him. The four ninja pursued after Deidara and Naiya not losing the sight of them. Deidara clasped the kunai between his teeth still as he carried Naiya through the forest and tried to get away from the ninja. "They're a persistent bunch." He looked back for a split second. He landed on the ground and dropped Naiya off then went off on his own for a short while so that he could keep Naiya at a safe distance from one of his explosions. "It was around here..." Deidara searched for something that could help him throw off his targets. "There." He said when he spotted his headless clay bird laying on the ground. He jumped behind it and waited for the ninjas to land near him.

"Watch out! He's a long-range fighter who attacks with explosives." Deidara heard Kakashi say but this time he wasn't going to fight long-range. He dropped the kunai out of his mouth and he took a bight of his clay bird and tore off a piece then he began to chew on the clay. Everyone stood puzzled as to what he was doing.

"I'll show you my ultimate creation." He said with a mouthful of clay. Once he swallowed it up, his legs began to bulge and so did his shoulders. Soon Deidara was swollen all over.

"Everyone get away." Neji commanded.

"Art is a blast! Katsu!" Deidara called just before he exploded himself. Deidara was buried under a pile of rubble that had fallen on him when he exploded. He waited for several minutes to make sure that all of the ninja were gone. Once he was sure of it, he lifted his head and created an opening for his body to squeeze through to get out of the wreckage that he had created afterwards he jumped out. "Jeez! I can't believe they actually stopped my special "suicide bomber" clone." Deidara thought to his battle with the ninja. Naiya stood behind a tree waiting for Deidara to come get her. When she had heard the rocks moving, she looked around the tree and become aware that Deidara was still alive even though he blew himself up. She ran towards him and embraced herself to him happy that he was alive. "Finally I got rid of them." He said proud that he was able to protect Naiya without any arms or jutsu. He started walking with Naiya. "Hmph." He sighed. "The only part of my arm that's really gone for good is the elbow area. I've gotta find where my right arm and ring landed and get them back, hm."

After a while of searching, Deidara noticed Tobi and Zetsu in the distance as he neared the Akatsuki base. Zetsu was still keeping guard and Tobi must have been looking for Naiya since she managed to slink past Tobi while he was asleep. Deidara heard Tobi's voice as he got closer and seen him standing above one of his hands.

"It's decided. He definitely died in an explosion, right, Zetsu?" Tobi concluded. He picked up Deidara's hand and held it. "I bet it happened somewhere around here." Tobi laughed.

"Let go of my hand, you little sh**." Deidara said panting behind a tree.

"Oh, you're alive!" Tobi called like it was a miracle. It was kind of a miracle since Deidara had been working with explosions, Tobi figured that one day he would accidentally blow himself up for good but not today. Deidara walked to them with Naiya beside him. "Naiya too! Hey! Naiya I've found you! I had been looking all over since I found out that you were gone! I thought that Deidara sempai would find out and he would have killed me! But now you're here and I'm safe!" Tobi shouted relieved.

"What happened to the Jinchuriki?" Zetsu's black side asked.

"I already finished my mission, hm." Deidara said through his teeth.

"My, my, my! You really cut it close, huh, Deidara sempai? But you're okay..." Tobi shrugged. "Not!" Deidara glared at Tobi with his eyes squinted and his teeth compressed firmly together.

"Tobi, hit him three times and even Buddha will get mad. I dare you to say something else then I'll decide how you die, yeah." Deidara threatened.

"What's to decide? You'd just blow me up."

"There's the third time." Zetsu said counting Tobi's third strike. Deidara locked his legs around Tobi's throat while lying on the ground.

"Suffocation, hm!" Deidara yelled strangling Tobi to make him shut up. Tobi struggled to get free.

"Ah! Ah! Let me go Deidara sempai." Tobi pleaded but Deidara did not let him go.

"Let him go Deidara. May I remind you of your missing arm?" Zetsu said. Deidara loosened his grip on Tobi then got up. Tobi crouched over with his hands to the ground gasping for breath.

"Right. I'm outta here, un." Deidara said putting his detached hand in his clay pouch then he left with Naiya still following him.


	18. Chapter 18

"Man, how far did my arm fly, hm?" Deidara asked himself after hours of searching. "Don't tell me that those Konoha ninja stole it. Let's see, I was in Sunagakure fighting Gaara when it dropped. That means I should probably go over there to look for it. Ah, that means I'm going to risk running into villagers again and since I can't perform any jutsu, I'm limited on protection. I better find it fast before my wound closes up to much, then Kakuzu won't be able to stitch it back on, yeah." Deidara walked past an overhang with large rocks piled up against it. Naiya's sensitive ears caught the sound of something moving over their so she pointed in that direction and insisted that Deidara should take a look. "It's probably an animal Naiya, nothing to be worried about. Whatever it is..." Deidara said but was cut off my something trying to work their way out of the rocks. Naiya whined then hid behind Deidara and peered at the sight. Suddenly a fist punched through then grabbed onto a sturdy rock and the body it was attached to pulled himself out. Deidara gasped with little words to say.

"Master, you're alive, un." Deidara said surprised to see Sasori sitting there badly beaten up from the rocks falling on him. Sasori was angry with Deidara.

"I would have been a lot better if you had just let me handle the Jinchuriki." He said. "Serves you right to lose your other arm." Deidara frowned back.

"The Jinchuriki wasn't the problem, it was Kakashi the copy ninja who used his sharringan to send my arm into a dimensional space, otherwise we could have had four Jinchuriki souls."

"The copy ninja?" Sasori said. "He was the copy ninja?"

"Yeah, he didn't steal any of my jutsu since he tore off my arm, un."

"You're too full of yourself, Deidara. Losing both of your arms is just the start of what becomes of someone who is over confident. If Naiya was anywhere near him at that time, she could have been killed then we would have lost another Jinchuriki." Sasori said then Naiya peered around Deidara taking Sasori's attention.

"That's another thing. Naiya saved my life. Somehow she managed to get past Tobi when he wasn't watching her and she found me in the battle with Kakashi. She was the one that saved me because she jumped in front of Kakashi's jutsu. He was forced to stop because he didn't want to hurt the innocent. Instead of taking all of me, he only got my elbow. Speaking of which, have you seen my left arm?" Deidara asked then Sasori held up an arm that had a mouth on its hand. Deidara smiled relieved when he seen it. "That saves me a lot of trouble, hm."

"Come on, let's go back to the base and get Kakuzu to stitch those back on. I think I have an extra elbow for you. It might be a little long though."

"Well shave part of it off. I can't go walking around with a long arm and a short one, I'll be the laughing stock if people see me like that." Deidara said beginning to walk back to the base with Sasori and Naiya.

"At this rate, you'll need that extra piece since you're obviously on a roll on losing arms."

"Well, keep it safe for me in case that day finally does come, hm."

"Fine, whatever." Sasori said, Naiya laughed at their argument.

"Finally back, un. I've missed my bed." Deidara said walking through the gateway.

"Yes, it's been a long time hasn't it?" Sasori commented.

"Not as long for Naiya since she stayed here. I'm gonna have to find Tobi and lecture him on how important it is to keep an eye on Naiya. I'm surprised that she was managed to get past Zetsu's security too, un."

"Some help Zetsu is if he's trying to keep an eye out for Orochimaru. He can't even keep track of a little girl let alone a ninja that has mastered nearly every jutsu."

"Thanks for the reminder." Deidara said sarcastically.

"Oh good you're back." Pein said. "We were just about to have another meeting." Pein ordered. Deidara, Sasori, Pein and Naiya walked into the crowded meeting room where everyone else had been waiting. Deidara spotted Tobi standing in the corner. "Welcome to the meeting." Pein started. "Deidara and Sasori have finally made it back on their mission for good regardless of how they look. We now have three Jinchuriki not including Naiya." Pein continued with his speech but Deidara wasn't really listening. He was just focused on lecturing Tobi afterwards but he couldn't help but notice how quiet Tobi had been for this whole meeting. It's not like Tobi to not say anything or even celebrate that he was in a meeting. He just stood there watching Pein speak and give orders. Normally he would have made some sort of comment or complain about something but this time he stood quiet. Deidara suspected that Orochimaru had either transformed into Tobi to get inside the Akatsuki or he took over his body. Whatever it was, Deidara was going to find out after the meeting. He wasn't going to risk Naiya's safety for Zetsu's careless surveillance. "And that concludes for today's meeting." Pein said then he got up and everyone began to head for the door.

"Hey Tobi." Deidara began. Tobi looked over to Deidara still not saying anything. He at least recognized his name. "What exactly where you doing during the meeting to be so quiet, hm?" Tobi shrugged. "Normally you wouldn't even hesitate to say something not needed to be heard. Is it because you are really Orochimaru?" Deidara put his face to Tobi's to see through his hole in his mask but it was too dark. Tobi shook his head. "Answer me or I'll..."

"No! I'm not Orochimaru! Don't hurt me." Tobi said.

"Well why were you being so quiet during the meeting, hm?"

"I was quiet because earlier you threatened me that you would kill me by suffocation if I made you angry! Please don't hurt me!" Tobi pleaded on his knees.

"Huh, you mean you remember that?"

"Yes, yes I remembered it. How could I not remember how I could possibly die?"

"So you're not Orochimaru, hm?" Deidara asked and Tobi shook his head in a hurry. Deidara realized that Tobi wouldn't remember something that far ago so he suspected him even more. "You must be because the real Tobi wouldn't remember something that I said earlier." Deidara said walking up to Tobi so his shadow covered him. Tobi trembled on the floor then he screamed and dashed for the door with Deidara following. Deidara ran down the hallway after Tobi then through the kitchen and made their way outside to continue the chase outdoors.

"Deidara's after Tobi again." Kisame pointed out sitting with a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.

"Tobi can't do anything without getting on Deidara's nerves." Itachi said putting down his newspaper.

"Ah!" Tobi screamed with Deidara close on his tail outside as he continued to run.

 **A/N: I didn't want Sasori to die cause he is such a cool character so I kept him alive =)**


	19. Chapter 19

Deidara walked into Kakuzu's room waiting to get Kakuzu's attention. Kakuzu sat reading some kind of medical magazine on how to make ones appearance younger. Kakuzu had been studying that area and using any tips for that for years and it clearly worked for him since he was really 91 but he appeared to be in his late 40's. Deidara cleared his throat and Kakuzu looked up from the article that he was reading.

"What do you want?" He asked.

"I was hoping that you could stitch my arms back on to my body since I have none, yeah." Deidara said.

"Why can't you get leader-sama to do it. I'm kind of busy."

"Why would I get leader-sama to do it when you can just as easily, if not better, do it yourself, hm? You've had years of experience on doing stitching. Just look at your body. It's covered with your masterpieces." Deidara pointed out. Kakuzu looked at his shirtless body and how many stitches he had done on himself over the years. "It's not like I can do it myself."

"Fine, sit down." Kakuzu growled. Once Deidara sat down, Kakuzu inspected Deidara's wounds closely to see how far it had healed. Kakuzu got up and got some cleaning ointment and some cotton swabs and set them on the table beside him and Deidara. He took off Deidara's shirt for him then began to cleanse Deidara's injury. One of Deidara's eyes cringed shut and he pressed his teeth together to avoid the pain. "Well no one said that this would be painless." Kakuzu said.

"I know." Was all that Deidara could say.

"Where's Naiya?"

"Leader-sama is doing a check up on her because she was punched in the stomach by the nine-tailed Jinchuriki, un." Deidara said regardless of the pain. Kakuzu picked up the wooden elbow that Sasori had generously donated to Deidara and he began to stitch that up onto his flesh. He groaned from the pain but he was relieved that Naiya wasn't here because she would have been worried seeing Deidara in pain. Kakuzu moved onto the second arm since he finished sewing Deidara's right arm. "Gah, couldn't you have used some sort of pain killer before you did this, hm?"

"Why, can't you handle a little pain?" Kakuzu chuckled.

"Yeah I can, it's just that it kills. If Naiya were here then she would have made you stop." Deidara said. Kakuzu smirked when he heard Deidara talking about Naiya. Deidara seen him smirk. Kakuzu reached for the scissors and cut the unwanted thread. Deidara rubbed the stitched spot of his arm.

"There all finished." Kakuzu said. "How will you be paying for that?"

"Pay? I thought you did this because you felt bad for me. Or was I wrong?" Deidara asked.

"I was joking. No one can tell when Kakuzu makes a joke." Kakuzu complained. Deidara walked out of Kakuzu's room then he went over to the medical room to see how Naiya was doing. As soon as he opened the door, Naiya was there waiting then she jumped on top of him knocking him down and she embraced him. Deidara groaned in pain making Naiya pull away. Pein walked out of the room and seen Deidara on the floor with Naiya on top of him.

"How did it go, hm?"

"All is fine, one of her ribs has a small crack on it but nothing serious. I used my chakra to heal that so she is as good as new."

"Oh thank goodness." He sighed with relief. "You had me worried there for a second." Pein smirked then he walked back to his office to do some leader type paperwork. "Come on Naiya, let's go see what master Sasori is doing, hm?" Deidara said taking Naiya's hand to help her up. Naiya skipped in front of Deidara and opened the door for him then jumped onto Deidara's bed. Deidara sat on a chair on the other side of Sasori's work bench. Sasori occupied himself by repairing his puppet that the old hag and Sakura partially destroyed when he fought them. "I guess I should thank you for the spare arm part, un."

"You're welcome. Do me a favour and don't lose that cause I can't always supply you with extra body parts." Sasori said grabbing a screwdriver and some nuts and bolts. "You didn't cry when Kakuzu stitched your arms on did you?" He joked but Deidara didn't find it at all funny.

"No but it hurt like he was trying to torture me. At least Naiya wasn't there to see me in pain otherwise I don't think that I would be able to get my arms back on." Deidara said looking at Naiya. Naiya was curled up on Deidara's bed sound asleep.

"She sure fell asleep fast." Sasori pointed out.

"Yeah, she had a stressful day watching me fight and her jumping in on it, yeah." He smiled still looking at Naiya. He watched her stomach rise and fall to the silent rhythm of her breath and his smile grew. "She's so cute when she sleeps, un." He said resting his head on his hand. Deidara seen Sasori smirking out of the corner of his eye then he blushed when he realized what he had said but he looked back to Naiya still blushing then he sighed. Sasori grinned as he worked on his puppet knowing that Deidara had developed feelings for Naiya in the time that they had been together. Deidara looked back at his master and noticed that he was still grinning. "What are you grinning about, hm?" He asked but he already knew what Sasori was going to say.

"You, you like her don't you." Sasori said. Deidara's cheeks turned red then he took his hand out from his chin. He didn't say anything but eventually he thought up of some words.

"Come on, that sounds something like Tobi would say, hm."

"Yeah that may be so but it's true isn't it." Sasori pointed out. Deidara shut his mouth because he didn't want to say anything that would embarrass him. "You're lucky that Tobi's not here, otherwise he would bug you to no end."

"Hah, if that ever happened, I would transform him into one of my masterpieces by blowing him up. Not that he could ever do it artistically, un."

"Why do you insist on saving her and trying to help her to become normal?" Sasori asked. Deidara blushed again.

"Uh, well, life's only so short. I want her to blossom into her own work of art. I want her to be happy, un."

"What's the point, leader-sama is going to make us take her Jinchuriki then she will die. It's not like she needs to be happy." Deidara paused when Sasori mentioned that she would die if they took her Jinchuriki then his heart sank. He had forgotten about her Jinchuriki. Without her, the Akatsuki would have failed their mission on collecting all Jinchuriki. It was still a long way before the day would come before they needed Naiya's Jinchuriki so he still had some time to be with her. But when that day would come, Deidara didn't know if he could give her up. She just brought him so much happiness and he wanted to do anything to make her happy so giving her up for her Jinchuriki was not an option. He would have to find some other way for the Akatsuki to get her Jinchuriki without killing her.

"Yeah but seeing her happy makes me feel content. I can't stand seeing her in pain. It makes me feel torn apart." Deidara said then there was a moment of silence but it was soon broken by Deidara yawning. "I feel tired too. Maybe I should get some rest, hm?" Deidara got up then laid on top of his bed beside Naiya. "Night master." He looked at Naiya sleeping beside him. "Night, Naiya." He whispered in his mind.

"Leader-sama." Tobi reported running into Pein's office.

"What is it now Tobi?" Pein said not in the mood.

"Itachi and Kisame heard while they were on their mission that there are some scrolls in the village hidden in the snow about Naiya."

"What, get Itachi and Kisame in here immediately and tell everyone that I'm calling up an important meeting." Pein ordered. Tobi ran out to find Itachi and Kisame first then he informed everyone that they were to report to Pein's office for a meeting regarding Naiya.

"What's this all about?" Hidan asked entering the room with blood on him from one of his rituals.

"I have just been notified that there are some scrolls hidden somewhere in the village hidden in the snow that are about Naiya. What it all says, I can't tell you because I have no idea but I want those scrolls. They could have valuable information regarding her Jinchuriki so I am sending Deidara, Tobi and Sasori out to retrieve everything that they can find about Naiya and you are to bring her with you. Perhaps if you bring her to the land that she originally came from, memories might return to her. This may bring us closer to capturing her Jinchuriki."

"What but I just got back from my mission a week ago." Deidara complained.

"Are you talking back to me?" Pein asked. Deidara frowned then he decided not to fight with him.

"No." He said like a child fighting with his parents.

"Good. I want those scrolls here as soon as possible. And remember to keep an eye out for Orochimaru, got it?"

"Yes leader-sama sir." Tobi saluted excitedly but Deidara and Sasori stood quiet.

"Excellent now get going!" Pein ordered and they all marched out to get prepared for their long journey out of the country.

"Oh boy! I'm finally going to go on a mission and with my sempai too!" Tobi commemorated putting some ninja tools in a small bag so that it could be kept on his person at all times. "I wonder what my first mission will be like. Deidara sempai will show me how to fight better and maybe he will show me one of his masterpieces. Wait a minute... I'm going to the land of snow which means that I should probably pack a coat or something, I heard that weather there could get below zero and it always snows."

"Well I think Naiya and I are ready, yeah." Deidara said in his room just as he finished packing. Sasori finished soon after too. "I wonder what's taking Tobi so long. Well why don't we just leave without him."

"You know we can't do that." Sasori began. "Leader-sama said we are to bring him. He would not be happy if we disobeyed his orders."

"Ugh, you think I don't know that. How could Tobi possibly be any help to us on a mission like this, hm? Sometimes I don't see where leader-sama is coming from."

"You don't need to know. You just need to follow orders. I'm sure leader-sama has his reasons though." Sasori said. Naiya jumped up and down excited that she was going to get out of the Akatsuki hideout with Pein's permission and go somewhere with Deidara, little did she know that she was going back to her home land.

"Still, I'm interested on what the scrolls are all about. Hey maybe Naiya and I should head out now, I might be slightly slower with her so we should probably get a heads start."

"Fine go ahead. Tobi and I will catch up soon enough. At least I won't have to wait for you then." Sasori said.

"Yeah you'll just have to wait for Tobi who will take even longer, un." Deidara mumbled to himself. "Come on Naiya, let's get going now shall we, hm? Don't be too long master." Deidara said walking out the door with Naiya.

As soon as Naiya got outside, she dashed out in front of Deidara and ran as fast as she could in the field that lead to the village hidden in the snow. Deidara ran after her until he caught up then he ran alongside with her. While running, Naiya grabbed Deidara's hand and pulled him along with her, they both ran and laughed. Together, they ran towards the sun with the wind blowing them in their faces. "At the rate we're going, Sasori and Tobi won't be able to catch up with us." Deidara said to Naiya. Suddenly, Naiya tripped on something and fell into the tall grass pulling Deidara with her. She laughed while laying on the ground. Deidara crawled until he was overtop of her and he laughed with her. When Deidara looked into Naiya's eyes, and her looking back in his, his face turned serious with a slight blush in his cheeks. Naiya stopped smiling when she observed Deidara's face blushing then she blushed too for the first time in her life. Deidara slowly moved his head closer to hers and used his hand to brush her hair that was over her face. His face was so close to hers that they could each feel each other's sweet breath on their cheeks. Naiya raised one of her hands and put it on Deidara's back to keep him close.

"Finally caught up to you Deidara sempai!" Tobi said loudly scaring Deidara so he jumped off of Naiya and tried to make it look like they weren't doing anything. Sasori smirked and rolled his eyes in the background and Tobi didn't even realize what Deidara was doing. Deidara was speechless and his head tried to think up of something to say to cover himself up. Naiya sat up and tried to help Deidara up too heavy for her to do it on her own so he got up too. Deidara still blushed.

"Come on, let's get going." Sasori chuckled then they all walked together.


	20. Chapter 20

"Let's stop here for the night, we've been walking for 8 hours and I'm so tired." Tobi said louder than necessary. "Tobi will get wood for a campfire." Tobi ran into the forest in search of logs and kindling. Once Tobi was gone, Sasori had to say something.

"Tobi may not have been smart enough to see it but I knew what you were doing with Naiya." Sasori smirked.

"Yeah but if Tobi found out, I wouldn't hear the end of it. I don't think even Naiya had any idea what I was thinking, un." Deidara said putting a skewer stick through the fish that they had packed along for food.

"There's only one way to teach her." Sasori said and this made Deidara think. He didn't want to force anything or startle her too much. He didn't even know if Naiya felt the same way about him as he did about her. He didn't know what goes on through her mind since she couldn't talk, he didn't even know if she thought in sentences or actions. He looked over at Naiya, she was sitting cross-legged beside him watching him put skewer sticks through the fish.

"Tobi's back." Tobi said marching through some bushes with a pile of fire wood in his arms. He threw them down and took two sticks and started rubbing them together. Deidara rolled his eyes and threw a ball of clay into the pile and exploded it. The sparks caught on the kindling and started a roaring fire. He passed out the skewers for everyone to cook their own food. "So what do you think the scrolls say that we are after?"

"Leader-sama says that they are about Naiya, yeah." Deidara said making Tobi look like an idiot.

"Yeah I know that but what about her."

"Her past, possibly her Jinchuriki." Sasori said repeating Pein's words that he had said earlier in the meeting. Tobi had clearly forgotten it already.

"Is that it? I thought it would say something important."

"It does say something important." Deidara said passing a cooked fish to Naiya then he cooked his own. She bit into it and started chomping away along with Sasori and Tobi. "I'm curious as to what it says too. I've always wondered what happened to her before we found her locked in that house. Mind you she is a Jinchuriki so maybe the people of the village hid her in there so that they wouldn't have to worry about her attacking them or something. People can be so arrogant and don't even consider that Naiya is human too, un."

"You found her in a house all by herself?" Tobi asked.

"Yeah, she was all by herself there. She was hidden under the sheets on a bed in the corner. I remember when we took those sheets off from her. She was so skinny. It looked almost as if she hardly ate." Deidara said folding his arms and leaning back on a fallen down tree trunk. "It's funny, the house that she was in was the only house that wasn't stained with blood on the outside. I think cause no one dared to get near her since she possessed the three-tailed snow tiger."

"Yeah, I've been a witness to it. She tried to kill me when you were gone, sempai." Tobi said making Deidara smile.

"I taught her well." He joked then he lifted his head and seen a snow covered mountain kilometres in front of them. It was more like a range of mountains and Naiya's village was just behind those. "I guess that's where we're heading in the morning, hm?" Tobi turned his head around to see what Deidara was talking about but Sasori had no need.

"That's right." Sasori began. "If we keep up the pace that we're going at, we should be arriving there at around 4:00 in the afternoon maybe 5:00."

"Yeah, it's going to be a cold one, hm." Deidara said. Naiya laid down and rested her head on Deidara's leg. Tobi yawned.

"We've been walking all day, I'm pooped." He said falling backwards to lay on the ground. Deidara hadn't been paying any attention to what Tobi had said. Since Naiya laid down on him, he had been looking at her contemplative of what it will be like for her to be back at her own village, even if that will bring back memories to her. He lifted his hand and put it on her shoulder and he used his other one to stroke her hair. He grinned widely. Out of the blue, Tobi began talking about nonsense which interrupted Deidara's drift of thought. He looked up from Naiya and found that Tobi had just been talking in his sleep about riding a pony, or something. He rolled his eyes and looked back to Naiya, she had also been sleeping too. Sasori put down a bag of supplies and rested his head on it and closed his eyes as for Deidara, he couldn't get to sleep for a while since he had so much on his mind.


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N: One long chapter so get ready.**

The next day at exactally 4:00 pm, Sasori, Tobi Deidara and Naiya had arrived in the village hidden in the snow just as Sasori had predicted. The sky was already dark and snow fell lightly on the village. Naiya stopped and looked down at what she was walking into and she had recalled that she had felt this before in her life but since she was given sight by Pein, she was able to see what it was that cushioned under her feet as she sauntered through the white blanket of snow. Deidara stopped and turned around to see what Naiya was doing and Sasori and Tobi did the same. Deidara watched Naiya's eyes explore the beauty of her home land. Naiya picked up a pile of show with both hands and remembered the cold feeling. She remembered the chill of the arctic wind blowing against her cheeks, something that she could not see but she remembered its feel very well. Deidara walked up to her and kneeled down.

"That stuff is snow, un." He smiled then he picked up a pile and formed it into a snow ball and gave it to Naiya. He formed a ball of his own and threw it at the back of Tobi's head.

"Hey, what was that for?" Tobi asked turning around finding Naiya knelt down with a snow ball in her hand. She was easily influenced by Deidara that she threw her snow ball at Tobi too but his mask broke the ball. "Deidara sempai, what are you teaching Naiya." Tobi complained.

"Relax, un." He said standing up with Naiya. "Or can't you handle a little snowball fight?" Naiya laughed at Tobi's reaction when she pelted him on his mask but Tobi didn't take it hardly he was just frustrated that his sempai was teaching Naiya to be violent. They continued walking until they got to the house that they found Naiya in when they first met her. "Where do you think the scrolls are?"

"I don't know. Leader-sama didn't give us a specific location so I think that we should start in here." Sasori said opening up the poorly crafted wooden door but he used unnecessary strength causing the door to pull right off of its hinges and fall to the ground. Sasori looked at it for a moment then decided to ignore it and he walked in along with everyone else. Memories came back to Deidara's head as soon as he entered the bitter cold house. Inside it was hardly furnished, the house was so small, that it could hardly fit the needs of one person. It had only two rooms, a kitchen and the bed room. The kitchen had stone counters, a wooden table with rotting wooden chairs surrounding it on two of the four sides. Deidara looked at the walls seeing blood splatters that he vaguely remembered seeing it there before. He wondered if Naiya was the one who did this, to an answer to his question he searched for any bones or rotting body parts but he had seen none so this must have been from a long time ago. It may not have been Naiya who had done this but it could have been her Jinchuriki since she could not control it as well as other Jinchuriki hosts. Naiya stood at the house door way staring at everything with unpleasant memories coming back into her mind. She could not walk any further than the doorway so she stood there quivering in fear. Tears began to run down her cheeks as she remembered getting beaten from someone but she could not recall who. She remembered the smell of the blood on the walls, floor and the table that someone had strapped her down to and tortured her. On that table is where she was held against her will and whipped endlessly because she possessed the Jinchuriki that the village was so afraid of. Deidara stopped in his tracks to notice that Naiya was quaking in fear.

"Naiya?" Deidara called.

"What's wrong with Naiya?" Tobi asked.

"She must have remembered something that had happened to her here." Sasori said not paying attention to the expression displayed on Naiya's face.

"Too bad she can't talk, maybe she holds information on where the scrolls are." Tobi said.

"I'm not sure how much help she would be on the scrolls since she was blind when we found her. She couldn't even see where they were placed."

"Maybe she wasn't blind all her life, hm." Deidara thought. "Maybe her eyes were so powerful, like Itachi's, that the villagers were forced to prevent her from using them."

"Are you sure that she even had eyes?" Sasori asked.

"Hm, leader-sama did not say that she didn't have eyes so I think maybe she did have eyes. Otherwise how could leader-sama have restored her sight, hm?" Naiya shook her head and backed away from the door and ran around the house corner and sat down in the snow. "Hang on, I'm going to check to see if Naiya is okay." Deidara went to where Naiya had sat and knelt down beside her. He looked into her teary eyes and she looked back into him but soon turned away. He placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her down. "Naiya, you don't have to go inside if you don't want to, but you have to stay here until I come back, promise?" Naiya raised her head and then nodded. Deidara forced a smile then went back inside.

"How's Naiya doing Deidara sempai?" Tobi asked.

"I think she will be alright, yeah." Deidara said. Tobi opened a door slowly and then screamed and shut it closed so that no one could see inside. Deidara and Sasori looked at him as he panted with his back to the door.

"Just kidding." Tobi said waving his hand. Deidara punched him as punishment and Tobi fell to the ground. With Tobi out of the way, Deidara opened the door to see what was really behind it. It was another room but it was empty, just a carpet in the middle and nothing else but spiders and cobwebs. Deidara, Sasori and Tobi went inside the room to check it out. Tobi walked in the middle of the room on top of the carpet with wooden flooring underneath it. Deidara stopped for a moment and examined the floor that Tobi had just walked on, he listened as Tobi walked around it then Deidara tapped the spot that he stood in to check the sound difference. Unexpectedly, Deidara threw a clay bomb down then ignited it right where Tobi was. Tobi screamed.

"Whaaaaa! Sempai, what was that about?" Tobi asked when he landed behind Sasori. Deidara paid no attention to what Tobi had been saying, instead he stood waiting for the smoke to clear. Finally, Deidara smirked when he had spotted stairs leading to an underground passage. "Oh, wow sempai. You're really smart." Tobi said.

Naiya had been sitting outside in the cold with her head in between her knees waiting for Deidara to come back out to get her. She lifted her head when she heard someone talking in the distance, she thought it was Deidara but she seen a man and a woman standing outside in front of a house where she could see them clearly. They appeared to be lovers on a date and the male was dropping the female off at her house after the time that they had spent together. Naiya watched as she noticed the male showing affection and care just like Deidara has done with her. She heard them speak a certain word and Naiya made out the word to be "kiss" but she did not know what this word meant. Then she seen the male take the females hands and used one to brush the hair out of the females face and moved his face closer then the woman finished and they locked their lips together in what is commonly known as "a kiss." Naiya remembered Deidara doing the exact same things with her, only he did not put his lips to hers. She wanted to try this with Deidara, only Deidara, but she did not know if that's what he would want then she heard them say "I love you" to each other. Deidara had been watching Naiya gaze at the kissing couple and examining their feelings towards each other and he realized that she had discovered the art of a kiss. Naiya wanted to make sure what the signs were before a couple kisses so that she would know when Deidara wanted to kiss her. She realized that they were alone. Finally, Deidara came back to her to take her with him.

"Naiya, we found and underground passage leading somewhere but I don't want to go down it without you, hm. I want you to come with me." He smiled then he held out his hand. "Can you come into the house for me?" Naiya looked at Deidara's hand with the mouth smiling then she looked at him also smiling with a compassionate smile. She looked back at the hand then took it and Deidara helped her up and took her inside.

"What took you sempai, Sasori and I were waiting."

"You can't rush things with Naiya, hm." Deidara said walking in with Naiya and past Tobi then they all went directly down the stairs. They walked down a tunnel with few candles lit that were hanging from the wall, there were also seals on the wall but for what reason? Everyone kept their guard up as they continued down the suspicious passage. Eventually, they came to a split passage.

"Oh Deidara sempai and I get the right passage." Tobi said pointing that way then Deidara and Naiya walked into the opposite passage. Sasori went with Tobi. "Sempai?"

"Hurry up Tobi, don't keep me waiting." Sasori said. Tobi walked with his head to the floor and followed Sasori. Naiya squeezed Deidara's hand as they walked down their passage. Her heart rate had been up ever since she had walked into the house and Deidara could feel her pulse as they were holding hands. Shortly after they made their passage choice, they came to a dark room. Deidara stopped and dropped his jaw.

"Oh my gosh." Deidara gasped when they came around a corner. His jaw dropped like he had seen something raised from the dead. "This is..." Naiya hung on to Deidara's arm still trembling. "This is a slaughter house." There were torture and killing devices from guillotines to nooses to a spiked coffin, there must have been every type of killing device here, there was even racks. Each instrument of torture was painted in a coat of blood that was almost as old as the instruments themselves. Deidara walked into the room and inspected each torture device more closely. "Too bad we don't have a member from the Inuzuka clan to help us identify if Naiya's blood is on here." Naiya remembered being on some of these devices, she remembered how it felt and she based the appearance of the device to how it would feel if someone was in there. Naiya sunk down and sat on the floor feeling queasy from all sorts of memories coming back to her. She didn't want to remember them. "Naiya were you on any of these tools?" Deidara asked seeing the answer in her eyes. Naiya pointed to several devices that she had recalled being on in the far past. Deidara's heart dropped when he seen her pointed to several of the devices. He couldn't watch her suffer here without feeling for Naiya and he wondered what happened to her here that she got persecute. "Come on, let's go find master." Deidara said then they walked away from the gruesome room and caught up with Sasori and Tobi. Sasori and Tobi turned around.

"Well, what did you find sempai."

"Nothing, a dead end, yeah." Deidara lied but Sasori knew that Deidara wasn't telling the truth but Deidara intended it that way because he didn't want to tell Tobi and have him making up some jokes. There was a silence as Sasori and Deidara stared each other down, Tobi and Naiya looked back and forth between the two it's as if they were having a conversation in their head with each other. "Come on, let's go." Deidara said taking the lead. He grabbed Naiya's hand to ease her fear and continued down the passage. Eventually there were no lights and the corridor was pitch black. Tobi was bumping into walls the whole way until there was a small light at the end of a tunnel.(cliché much) The source of light was a table of candles. As they got closer, the table had a star with a circle around it used for rituals and a crystal ball in the middle there were also bookcases with books and scrolls on it. Sasori and Deidara began pulling books and scrolls out and started to read them to see if this was what they were looking for.

"Found one." Sasori said handing a scroll for Tobi to carry.

"Well what does it say?" Deidara asked.

"Don't be so impatient, leader-sama should be the first one to see this." Sasori said.

"Impatient, me impatient? Funny you should say that since you are always the one that tells me not to keep you waiting. I would think that you're the impatient one, hm?" Deidara said. Sasori glared at Deidara then Sasori punched Deidara. Naiya gasped.

"Watch what you say." Sasori warned. Deidara frowned. Suddenly, Naiya ran out of the room crying.

"Uh-Oh. There she goes again." Tobi said.

"See what you did master?" Deidara said then he ran after Naiya.

"There he goes again." Tobi said then he looked over at Sasori. "Uh, Sasori, I think maybe we should lay off on the violence since that could have bad effects on Naiya's memories." Tobi suggested.

"Maybe when Deidara smartens up." Sasori said throwing another scroll at Tobi.

Naiya ran down the hallway and out of the house leaving a trail of tears behind her for Deidara to follow, except they were hard to see. She ran as far away from the house as she possibly could and hid behind another house. She sobbed then she heard a girl scream from behind her.

"It's the three tailed snow tiger!" A girl screamed. Naiya looked above her and seen an adolescent looking down at her in fear. Suddenly, her father came out of the house door with a bat that he was going to use against Naiya to protect his family. Naiya curled up terrified what the man was going to do to her, she couldn't move.

"I'll give you ten seconds to get out of here before I aim this bat at your head." The man threatened. He began counting down from ten but Naiya was frozen on the spot and could not move. "5... 4... 3... You'd best start running now before I get to one. 2..." Naiya closed her eyes and put her hands on her head. "One!" The man took his first swing with the bat and hit Naiya on the shoulder then he began to repetitively and wildly throw the wooden stake at her. Each hit cut or bruised her in a different spot on her body, if the man kept this up, she would have some broken bones or she could be left for dead. After searching for Naiya, Deidara finally came around a corner and saw a man continuously beating Naiya. He ran in and stopped the bat from hitting Naiya anymore. The man stepped back. "Get out of the way punk."

"Why are you beating on an innocent girl, hm?" Deidara asked.

"Innocent, that girl is anything but innocent. She possesses the tree tailed snow tiger and is a threat to our village."

"It doesn't sound like she is a threat. What has she ever done?"

"She holds everyone in the village hostage, she has even killed a few good friends of mine who were sent to her."

"What were they sent to her for, hm?" Deidara began asking questions hoping to find some answers to Naiya's past. Deidara put his hands on his hips and stared at the bloody bat. Naiya looked up and seen Deidara in front of her, protecting her like he has always done.

"That doesn't matter, just get out of the way or I'll have to kill you both." The man unwisely said. Deidara laughed.

"You think that you should be afraid of her but you really should be afraid of me. Just look at my cloak. I am an S-ranked criminal and I could kill you just like that if you touch her again, hm." Deidara glared and the man glared back knowing what he must do.

"Why do you protect her?" The man asked. Deidara looked at Naiya then back at the man.

"Because unlike you, I value her life. She means more to me than anything on this earth. People like you disgust me, yeah. You can't see the beauty of art." Deidara said throwing a small clay bird then he exploded it right in front of the man to see that he was serious about killing him. "How about I kill your most precious person; your wife, then you will understand how I will feel if you kill my most precious person, un."

"Get out of the way!" He yelled once again. He threw his half broken bat at Deidara but Naiya jumped in front to protect Deidara, faster than she has ever moved, this time and using her three tailed snow tiger, she partially transformed and tore through the man's chest with her hand, right through his heart. Deidara gasped when he seen Naiya turn violent.

"Father." The youth called. Naiya turned around and looked at the voice with blood shot eyes. She snarled feeling the thirst for blood then ran after her and killed her without making an effort. Deidara stood there not knowing what to do. Blood covered her body but mostly her hands that she used to shred through human flesh. Naiya began to transform some more tearing her clothes and ruffling her hair as she attacked the family that came outside to try to stop her.

"Naiya." Deidara whispered then he shouted. "Naiya, stop. Stop it Naiya!" When Naiya heard Deidara's voice, she stopped what she was doing. Deidara ran up to her to hug her three tailed body and as soon as he made contact with her, she began to revert to her normal self. Eventually she came to normal and began crying in Deidara's arms, he stroked her hair. "It's okay Naiya, everything will be okay. I won't leave you." Naiya held on to Deidara's uniform and cried at what she had done. It felt like she had no control over her body like something else was trying to poses her. "I won't leave you." Deidara whispered again hugging her tightly while pressing her head on his chest.

"Whoa, what happened here?" Tobi asked when he and Sasori came out of the house with three scrolls. Blood was splashed on the snow after Naiya's destructive episode. When they came around the corner, they seen Deidara hugging Naiya in the middle of the blood bath. "Deidara sempai?"

"Leave them be." Sasori said walking away. Tobi continued to watch so Sasori was forced to pull on Tobi's hair to get him moving too. "It's just like the scroll says."

"What, you mean you read some of the scroll after you told Deidara sempai that only leader-sama could look at it?" Tobi yelled and Sasori nodded.

Deidara took off his Akatsuki robe and placed it on Naiya's shoulders then picked her up and carried her away. He followed the footsteps that Tobi and Sasori had left behind and eventually he caught up with them. They had been waiting at the exit of the village. Once Deidara caught up, they all walked away silently and started back for the Akatsuki base.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N:** These next few chapters are on the longer side.

 **This chapter contains MINOR spoilers to the canon, read at your own risk.**

The very second that Deidara, Sasori, Tobi and Naiya reached the Akatsuki base, Deidara took Naiya to the medical room to take care of her wounds. He set her on the table in the middle of the room and took off the robe that he had placed around her then he took out the supplies he needed. Sasori delivered the scrolls to Pein's desk and returned to his room. Deidara sat down beside Naiya and was about to get started but he was forced to stop because Naiya's wounds began to repair themselves. He gasped. This was because of Naiya's Jinchuriki and whenever the host of a Jinchuriki is injured, the Jinchuriki repairs it's body so that it can continue living in its vessel. Although the wounds were healing themselves, the blood still remained so Deidara had slightly less work to do. Naiya's outfit had all sorts of tares throughout it that blood had seeped through. Deidara began cleaning the blood off of her arms and legs but when it came to under her outfit, he would have a problem. Naiya watched as Deidara carefully removed the blood from her body. To make things even worse, Naiya was awake and watching him and she would be awake by the time that he had to go under her clothes. Deidara's heart thumped but he smiled at Naiya to hide it. Her bottom half of her was clean, it's just the breasts that needed some work now.

"Why did I jump right to doing this, hm?" Deidara asked himself. He exhaled heavily then held his breath as he put his arms under her dress then he began to clean her stomach. Naiya watched him nervously rub her stomach with a wet cloth to get the blood off making Deidara even more nervous. When he was done that, he moved his hands up and right before he touched Naiya's breasts, Tobi opened the door and found Deidara appearing to grope for Naiya's breasts. Tobi gasped.

"Sempai what are you doing to Naiya?" Tobi asked. He looked at Deidara and Naiya who just stared back at him. Deidara's face had turned beat red. Tobi smiled and put his hands on his hips. Deidara still stood in the same position and did not move his hands because he was trying to think up of something to say to Tobi. "You like Naiya, don't you sempai?" Tobi asked. Deidara slipped his hands from under Naiya's dress.

"It's not what it looks like Tobi, yeah."

"Tobi never knew that Deidara sempai was a pervert."

"Tobi I was just cleaning the blood off of her, hm." Deidara finally said glaring at Tobi.

"Deidara sempai likes Naiya! Deidara sempai likes Naiya!" Tobi shouted like a child. Deidara gave a deadly glare at Tobi.

"You tell anyone what I was doing, I'll kill you. You hear me?" Deidara said throwing a clay bird in front of Tobi. Deidara made a hand sign but was not going to blow it up unless he absolutely needed too.

"What's going on in here?" Hidan asked walking into the room.

"Katsu!" Deidara yelled blowing up his bird.

"Deidara!" Hidan yelled. Deidara gulped when he realized that he accidently set of his trap that was meant for Tobi on Hidan. Finally the smoke cleared and an angry Hidan walked into the room getting ready to yell at Deidara. "Deidara!" He yelled again. Naiya's eyes turned frightened as soon as she had seen Hidan come it. She had developed a fear of him since Deidara had left on the mission to retrieve Gaara, since then, Hidan has abused her and does not give a second thought to Naiya's feelings. Deidara had noticed the look in Naiya's eyes the moment that Hidan walked in and he began to suspect that Hidan did something to her to make her afraid of him.

"What did you do to Naiya to make her so afraid of you?" Deidara raised his voice. "You did something to her while I was gone on my mission didn't you, hm?" Deidara glared at Hidan ready to punch him in the gut.

"Well she would never shut up and no one would take care of her so I had to take matters into my own hands."

"By doing what, un?"

"Whatever that was needed to be done." Hidan said. Deidara growl at him.

"If you ever hurt her again, I'll slaughter you." Deidara threatened but Hidan rolled his head and walked away leaving Deidara still frowning with Tobi on the floor recovering from the accidental explosion. Tobi got up and rubbed the bump on his head that had developed from falling down.

"What was that all about sempai?" Tobi asked. Deidara turned around and placed his hands on the table that Naiya sat on. His teeth grinded together.

"Hidan that b******, he thinks that he can hurt Naiya without me there. Coward." Deidara walked out of the room and left the base to go and cool off. He walked into a nearby field and began exploding some clay to try to take his mind off of things. Naiya went back to Deidara's room and waited for him to return meanwhile, she watched Sasori make puppets. Tobi decided to follow his sempai outside to see what he was doing. Tobi unusually and quietly sat down beside his sempai. "I'm not in the mood, Tobi." Deidara said closing his eyes so he wouldn't have to see Tobi.

"Are you okay sempai?" Tobi asked. Deidara opened his eyes and expected Tobi to say something stupid but instead he quietly waited for Deidara's answer. He finally shook his head. "What's wrong?"

"Tobi, I don't know if you seen this but while we were in the village hidden in the snow, I saw some torture devices downstairs in the corridor that Naiya and I explored." Deidara began.

"So, what about those?" Tobi asked, Deidara's hands tightened.

"Naiya was on many of those. Apparently in her past, she has been beaten and was put on many of those devices, probably because of her Jinchuriki. Also, after she ran out, I found a man beating her because everyone in the village is afraid of her because she possesses the three tailed snow tiger. It hurts to even think of her in pain." Tobi listened compassionately to what Deidara was saying.

"Can I ask you a question sempai? Do you really like Naiya?"

"More than anything. She is more important than art to me. I would do anything for her, to keep her happy."

"Do you think that maybe you love her, sempai?" Tobi asked. Deidara couldn't admit it in front of Tobi, he didn't want anyone to know.

"Tobi, have you ever wondered about what we are doing is wrong? I mean we go around collecting Jinchuriki hosts to steal their Jinchuriki and kill them in the process. I don't think that I could do that to Naiya. If we take her Jinchuriki, then she will surely die and if that happens, I don't know if I could go on in life. I guess what I'm saying is that I can't live without her, hm." Deidara picked a flower that was growing right beside him and held it up to his face so he could examine its beauty. He smiled. "I should probably talk to leader-sama about it and ask him if there's another way so we won't have to hurt Naiya." Deidara stood up with the flower still in his hand. Tobi looked up at him while the wind picked up blowing Deidara's hair and cape wildly around. He stood quiet for a second but then he finally said something. "Tobi, thanks for everything just now." He said not turning around to look at Tobi, when he finished talking he took off and ran back to the Akatsuki base. He immediately went to his room and seen Sasori fixing his puppets and Naiya watching him, they both turned to Deidara when he came through the door. He walked over and sat down beside Naiya also watching Sasori.

"I didn't know my puppets could draw a crowd like this." Sasori joked.

"Master, is there a way to take a Jinchuriki from a host without killing them?" Deidara asked. Sasori looked at Naiya then at Deidara's desperate face.

"You'll have to ask leader-sama about that. You're thinking about saving Naiya aren't you?" Sasori asked and Deidara nodded. "You realize that we need Naiya's Jinchuriki and if we don't have hers than our whole mission would be for nothing."

"Yes I realize that." Deidara softly looking at Naiya with sad eyes. Sasori watched Deidara's eyes and noticed that Deidara really felt for Naiya. Sasori sighed.

"Like I said, you should ask leader-sama what he can do." Deidara took out the flower and gave it to Naiya. Naiya took it in her delicate hands and studied its beauty like Deidara had done. She smiled when she smelled its tiny sweet aroma then turned around to hug Deidara thanking him for this gift.

"Yeah, I think I'll do that, yeah."

Deidara managed to get the three scrolls that were about Naiya in the middle of the night while everyone was still sleeping. He sat on his bed and secretively went through the scrolls interested in what they read. Deidara wondered who sealed the Jinchuriki inside Naiya and why her.

 _Naiya holder of the three-tailed Snow Tiger,_

 _Times attempted to exterminate: 880_

 _Strappado: 36_

 _Guillotine: 42_

 _Gallows: 106_

 _Exposure: 51_

 _Iron Maiden: 184_

 _Whipped: 579_

 _The Wheel: 16_

 _Stoned: 249_

 _Burned: 98_

 _People killed: 1682_

 _Conclusion: When attempted to exterminate, three-tails protects her and heals wounds 167 minutes sometimes longer after the attempt. She transforms during extermination and kills all people in the room. She is to be locked into a room and is never to be opened._

Deidara's whole face frowned when he read this and his hands fell to the bed. How could those people want to kill her just because of her Jinchuriki? It seemed from this scroll that she only kills when she is abused. It served those people right for trying to kill her now they got what they deserved. Deidara scrolled downwards and seen a few descriptions of the torture devices.

 _Strappado: An individual's hands were bound behind their back then they were suspended by their wrists. This caused their arms to be pulled behind their backs, dislocating their shoulders. Weight could be added to dislocate their legs joints._

 _Exposure: People_ _were condemned to be fixed to the ground with iron nails. Spreading arms and legs while being naked under the sun. If this wasn't enough, wild animals used to eat the victim alive. The victim was lucky if the closest animal was a bear; for there were smaller animals, such as mice; who would eat him slowly._

 _The Wheel:_ _The torturer would turn a handle with a person tied to the wheel - the more he pulled, the more the wheel would be turned and the more the person would be stretched._

Deidara's heart sank while reading this, he couldn't imagine all of the pain that Naiya had been through in her life. He noticed even more towards the bottom a few gruesome pictures of them in the process of exterminating Naiya. There was one that caught his eye, it appeared to be the exposure method since he noticed that her hands and feet were nailed to the ground and what really caught his eye was the picture of Naiya laying completely naked on the floor inside the torture room. Rats and other small vermin were also captured in this photograph. It seemed to be taken at the start of the extermination based on her pale skin was completely unharmed other than her hands and feet being bolted to the ground. His eyes were focused on her seductive naked body studying her features and how beautiful she looked despite the painful expression on her face. She had such a beautiful body he wished to reach out and caress it passionately. It appeared that a lot of these pictures had her naked while they were torturing her. He tried to imagine her natural current state without clothes and soon his heart struck his chest with strong feelings that were becoming more familiar to him but not quite known as to what they were. Sasori mentioned that it could be love but was he really right about this? He rolled the scroll up and set it down then moved onto the next one.

 _Naiya's Jinchuriki was sealed inside of her 4 days before birth by her father using the ultimate sealing jutsu which cost him his life. Naiya killed her first victim which was her mother during childbirth. While she was still inside her mother's womb, Naiya tore her way out through her mother's stomach and exploded her from the inside. Because of this, she has no siblings since she was the first born. At 8 months she took her first steps towards another victim, a 3 year old child that stole a toy from her and Naiya easily claimed her life as gone. As for her first teeth, they were not just used for eating, she easily tore furniture and bit off peoples limbs._

"I'd like to know what those people were doing to make Naiya attack them, hm. And why did her father put that Jinchuriki inside Naiya?" Deidara thought to himself then he continued to read.

 _Villagers feared Naiya so much that she was locked up at the age of 1 ½ after she had killed 24 people since birth. They were still not happy that Naiya was living in the village so the jounin of the village were sent out to try to exterminate her. They put her on her first torture device when she was 6 years old and she immediately killed all 7 people that were in the room and was escorted back to her cage to remain until they tried to kill her again._

Deidara almost couldn't handle reading any more of Naiya's past since most of it was gruesome and full of pain. He got up and put the scrolls back to where he first got them and he decided to go for a midnight walk to clear up his head and hopefully help him to get to sleep. He walked outside in the pitch darkness and looked up at the stars remembering how clear they were when he had been in the village hidden in the snow. He stopped for a moment to have a look at a single star that was different from all of the others. This star was a deep crimson color, it was bright but not quite as bright as the others. He decided to take a load off of his feet so he laid down on the grass and gazed at all of the stars.

"How could such a beautiful world be so cruel, hm?" Deidara asked himself while putting his hands behind his head and closing his eyes. He remembered back to the days when Itachi, Kisame and Sasori came to him to invite him into the Akatsuki but he refused to go with them. He also remembered Itachi using his sharringan to counter Deidara's attack and he almost blew himself up but was forced to go to the Akatsuki because of the deal that he made with him.

"You wanna fight, hm?" Deidara asked threatening Itachi.

"If I win the fight, then you come to the Akatsuki." Itachi said many years ago. Deidara reached into his back pocket and formed to clay figures; one a clay doll and another a clay millipede. He hid the millipede behind his back but he instantly threw the doll at Itachi.

"Ha, is that all you got." Deidara said making Itachi jump back then he exploded it creating a hole to form in the wall then when Itachi landed after jumping back, Deidara threw his millipede and wrapped it around Itachi. "There, now feel my art!" Deidara said while making a hand sign.

"I would take a look at yourself." Itachi said opening his eyes revelling his sharringan eye. Deidara looked into his eye and then noticed the clay millipede wrapped around himself, he could have killed himself if Itachi hadn't said anything.

"Told you he was the type to die young." Sasori said standing with Kisame on the side lines.

"A genjutsu, but how?" Deidara asked.

"From the beginning." Kisame started. "The moment you looked into Itachi's eyes, you unleashed his genjutsu." Deidara stood there with the millipede still tied around it and he stared with his mouth wide open at Itachi's eyes. He couldn't pull his head away from them.

"Beautiful." Was what he managed to say. "This is art, hm." He continued to look deep into the sharringan still in the same position. The millipede dropped from his body and Deidara put his hand over one of his eyes. "Ha, this art? That's impossible. How could I even think that someone else's jutsu is art?" Deidara shook those memories out of his head. Because of that, Deidara had despised Itachi since then for the reason of him being forced to join the Akatsuki and also for belittling his art.

Deidara opened his eyes and without moving his head, he looked around but he closed them again. Suddenly, two ninja appeared up above him and threw kunai down at Deidara and penetrated him. Deidara shouted from the unexpected pain as blood splattered out of his wounds.

"We got him." One celebrated while walking up to Deidara who was still on the ground.

"No you don't, hm." Deidara said. Deidara's body on the ground turned into a log as he was right above both of the mysterious ninja. He threw down some clay and exploded it but they all evaded it. Deidara landed away from the two ninja and just noticed a third one coming from behind him. He threw a small clay insect behind him then jumped upwards and ignited it when it was in the air taking care of one careless ninja. While Deidara was in the air, he noticed the ninja's headbands symbol and gasped. They were from the hidden sound village. Have they returned to get Naiya? It doesn't matter, Deidara would eliminate them then he would inform Pein on his sightings. "What are you doing here, hm?" Deidara asked.

"Where's the girl?" The taller one asked. This guy wore a mask over his mouth to protect his identity from others while the other wore goggles and a gas mask. "The three-tails, where is she? Give her to us now."

"As if I would give her to you! You only want her for your own wrong reasons. I'm not handing her over to you." Deidara shouted putting his hands into his pouches of clay that he carried on him at his waist. After his hands bit of a chunk of clay, he took them out and began to mould them while watching his enemies.

"That maybe so but that is classified information that only Orochimaru himself knows. He gave us one order and we are to carry that out. He wants us to bring back the girl, alive!"


	23. Chapter 23

"Orochimaru wants us to bring back the girl, alive!" A sound ninja said.

"Well you can't have her, she is mine and I'd sooner kill you then give her away." Deidara said throwing two clay birds at the ninja but they evaded them and threw two shurikin each with wire attached to them and attempted to pin Deidara down. The shurikin flew towards him then wrapped around his body preventing him from moving and he fell to the ground. He growled at the ninja walking towards him slightly irritated that he was pinned down so easily. He spat on them when they were right above him laughing profoundly.

"Hahaha, you sure talk tough for a weakling like yourself." One said putting his foot on Deidara's torso to rest his heavy body. Deidara smirked with a plan going through his head but he would have to wait for the right moment. The tall ninja stood near him holding the wire tight so that there was zero room for Deidara to move around in. He kicked some dirt over Deidara's face making him cough and wiggle to clear his eyes. "Look at you squirming around, you call yourself an Akatsuki member? Now I see why lord Orochimaru left your organization. You weaklings were holding him back from becoming the greatest ninja that he is and he will be even greater once he gets a hold of the tree-tailed snow tiger." One of the sound ninja stomped their foot on Deidara's stomach causing him to lose his breath then he coughed to try to regain it.

"Tell you what." The other ninja began. "If you tell us where the girl is then we will consider killing you quickly so that you feel little pain.

"I don't think so." Deidara said scowling with his teeth firmly pressed together at the two ninja that were a threat to Naiya's life. "I'll protect her with my life. She means more to me than anything and I'm not about to give her up to the likes of you." One of the ninja threw a punch towards Deidara's face but Deidara blew up a clay balloon through his mouth blocking the ninja's attack and absorbing him inside of the sticky abyss. He grabbed on to his partner to try to stop him from going in but he just dragged his comrade in with him. The balloon held the two sound ninja inside of itself giving Deidara lots of time to untangle himself from the ninja wire and walk far enough to safety then he ignited it instantly killing the two sound ninja.

Deidara ran back to the Akatsuki base as fast as he could to inform Pein that the sound ninja were back and possibly after Naiya. It was the middle of the night so he was to only inform the leader and he had to try not to wake anyone else. He creaked the entrance door open and silently hightailed it down the hallway until he got to the doorway to Peins room.

"Leader-sama!" Deidara called while constantly knocking on a knot on the solid wooden door. "Leader-sama."

"Gah, its 2:48 in the morning this better be good." Pein thought while taking the pillow off from over his ears. He got up and walked over to the door to unlock it. When he opened it up he noticed a troubled Deidara standing underneath the frame. "What is it Deidara?"

"I've spotted and eliminated three sound ninja that were heading this way, un and I've confirmed that they want Naiya and her Jinchuriki."

"What? Just now?" Pein said with a sudden zap of energy throwing through him. "Call everyone for an emergency meeting. Wake everyone up!" After everyone was woken up they slid out of bed and slowly went to the meeting room. Seems how all of the Akatsuki members were male, they arrived in their sleepwear; boxers. (oooh smexy)

"What's this all about?" Itachi asked.

"Yeah, we haven't had an overnight emergency meeting for ages." Kisame said scratching his back.

"Where's Tobi, he's the only one that isn't here other than Naiya." Pein asked looking around irritated.

"I tried to wake him up but no matter what I do, he won't get up, hm." Deidara shrugged.

"No matter, we'll begin without him." Pein took a breath then began. "Five minutes ago, I was informed that there were three sound ninja heading this way and it has been confirmed that they are after Naiya for her Jinchuriki and if they're from the sound village then it's guaranteed that they are under the orders of Orochimaru."

"I knew it." Sasori said to himself.

"So what are we to do about it? We already were told that this could happen again. What else is there to do?" Hidan remarked.

"That's exactly what I have been thinking since I was woken up this morning. They have been easy to fend off but eventually Orochimaru will get serious and send himself or his best men and then we will have trouble. Right now he is just playing with us. Zetsu go outside now and keep watch. I want you to use your longest distance and don't let your guard down at all."

"Got it." Both of Zetsu's sides said in unison.

"As for everyone else, I want you all to be on your best defence. Itachi, use your sharringan to trigger a genjutsu for anyone who comes this way to make then think that they are going in circles. Sasori, use all of your puppets from a distance from you and the base to keep an eye out. Kisame, use your water style jutsu to put up an extra barrier around this place. Make sure that no one passes our border of defence. Oh and Deidara, I want you to create some of your birds of clay to keep watch from above and survey the sky. We will do all of this until I have a more clear idea of what is to be done with Naiya. Do NOT let anyone in, kill all people that come our way."

"Right." Everyone said seriously.

"Excellent. Meeting adjourned." Pein said then everyone went off to set up their own special style of defence. "Oh, Deidara, can I have a word with you?" Deidara's heart skipped a beat as he turned around and walked back to where he had once stood. "I have an idea what needs to be done but I need to confirm it with you first."

"What is it leader-sama, hm?" Deidara asked slightly nervous.

"I think Naiya needs to evacuate the Akatsuki premises for a little while until we get this Orochimaru business under control. I think you are best fit for the job of watching Naiya and taking flight with her." Deidara knew that he shouldn't be happy that people were after Naiya but he couldn't help but feel jovial about the fact that he would be alone with just him and Naiya for what seemed to be like a long time knowing how hard it would be to take out Orochimaru but at the same time he wanted to be the one to do so since Naiya's life was in peril because of that snake. He had always wanted to be alone with Naiya but someone like Tobi had to wreck the moments that they had together. There would be no excuse for this time. "Do you think that you two will be okay by yourself or do I need to send somebody else to-."

"No I can handle everything myself, I can take care of Naiya without anyone else's help, un." Deidara quickly said so that for sure he and Naiya could be alone. He smiled on the inside.

"Very well. We will communicate using our telekinetic jutsu but the next question is where will you two run off to?" Pein put his left hand to his chin and closed his eyes. Deidara did not think about where he could go, instead he was too excited being away from everyone. After a few short moments, Pein finally spoke up. "I am debating between a few places, one being Konoha since Orochimaru would not think of going there but the problem is that there is a lot of people there, another place being her home village, Orochimaru may not consider that place either. The final place that I have in mind is a small village that is almost under populated. Not many people there would know who we are and what we stand for so that makes a perfect place to go but the thing is it's almost too obvious to go there so we should stick with the other two places."

"Last time I took Naiya to her home village, people caused up a ruckus when seeing her and people there also want her to be killed because they fear her Jinchuriki so I think that we have the best of chances in Konoha in the hidden leaf village, yeah." Deidara said.

"All right, it's settled. About the details of where in Konoha you will be staying I leave with you. I will provide you two with Kakuzu's money. It seems that you will need a great amount due to the reality that we don't even know how long this could go on for. I will have a talk with him on giving some of his funds up to help preserve our Akatsuki mission. You have three days to get Naiya and yourself out of here." Pein ordered. "You are dismissed."

"Yes leader-sama, un." Deidara said then he left the room and once he was around the corner, he made sure that no one was there then he jumped up and cheered. "Yes!" Deidara celebrated incongruously. Deidara walked back to his room after the emergency meeting that was held in the middle of the night and went back to sleep.

The next morning, Deidara was awakened by someone's laughter in a few rooms down and he unwillingly rolled over to take a look at the clock which flaunted 11:14 am in bold red digits. He sat up and stretched his arms upwards then to the side and dressed himself then he went over to find out who the source of laughter was and where it came from. In the TV room, he found Tobi playing with Naiya. Tobi looked up from Naiya and seen his sempai standing at the door frame with his arms folded tight against his chest but he couldn't help but smile as he watched Naiya laughing.

"Oh hi sempai!" Tobi waved. Naiya looked over to Deidara and smiled. "I was just entertaining Naiya, she looked bored while you were sleeping."

"I slept in because I woke up last night and went for a walk and we had an emergency meeting last night and you wouldn't wake up, hm. We had to start without you."

"What for? What was it about? Why a walk in the middle of the night?"

"Three sound ninja were coming this way again. It's been confirmed that they are after Naiya so leader-sama set up a defensive system using jutsu that should be able to spot Orochimaru's men before they even cross our border. Just to be safe leader-sama set up another plan, yeah."

"What's his alternative plan sempai?" Tobi asked.

"That's a secret being kept from you since you didn't come to the meeting, hm." Deidara said and Tobi fell to the floor. "By the way, shouldn't you be helping Zetsu keep watch?"

"Ah, you're right. I totally forgot. I gotta get going. Bye sempai, bye Naiya." Tobi said running off to go find Zetsu. Deidara turned from the door to Naiya and walked over to sit beside her.

"Morning." Deidara smiled and Naiya smiled back. "I'm sorry I slept in, hm. I didn't have a good sleep last night. I was thinking too much, yeah." Deidara's smile faded as he thought back to what he had read and seen last night of what was in those scrolls. Unintentionally, Deidara's eyes dropped down and were fixed on Naiya's breasts. Those pictures came to his mind of Naiya laying naked as he looked at her breasts of her sitting right in front of him. Once he realized what he was doing, he lost his breath and closed his eyes. Naiya's smile also faded and she watched Deidara concerned as to what was happening to him. When Deidara finally opened his eyes, he noticed Naiya's expression. "I'm okay, un." He smiled again passing it on to Naiya. "Naiya, leader-sama said that I can take you to Konoha just the two of us. It's a great place, we can have so much fun there and I really want to share this place with you." Deidara's speech began to slow as he noticed Naiya's smile growing then she jumped on top of him pressing herself against his chest. He laid back on the couch holding Naiya who had tackled him first. While stroking her hair, Deidara got addicted to the moment but eventually Naiya pulled away and kept on looking at him. "Leader-sama wants us to be gone in three days maximum. We should get ready so that we can leave anytime, un." Naiya nodded as she understood Deidara's words and Deidara smiled at her. "Okay, I'll go pack a bunch of clay, hm and other ninja tools. If you want to take anything, just give it to me and I will take care of them. I should probably get started, the sooner the better, yeah. You can come too Naiya." Deidara said and Naiya got up to follow him back to his room. "Morning master." Deidara said once walking into his and Sasori's room as soon as he got there, he grabbed his biggest clay pouch and stuffed all the clay in that he could. Sasori stopped what he was doing and watched Deidara stuff clay in a hurry. Naiya was sitting beside him helping him.

"I heard your leaving with Naiya soon." Sasori said admitting that he was eavesdropping.

"Yeah, I'm taking her to Konoha." Deidara replied.

"I know." Sasori said. There was a long pause between them while Sasori was thinking. "Are you sure that you two will be alright?"

"I can take care of her and myself without any problems. You always underestimate my art, master."

"It's not that, it's just that I am worried about you two. I know Orochimaru better than all of you and he is not one to be taken lightly. Also, if it's just you and Naiya..." Sasori stopped and Deidara looked up from what he was doing to see him being smirked at.

"What, are you suggesting that I-"

"Come on Deidara, I know you better than anyone. I know you're really looking forward to this so you can be alone with Naiya. but I have one thing to tell you; don't do anything that you will regret."

"Relax, un. I'm not a pervert like Hidan, hm. Besides, I wouldn't ever force something on her." Deidara said but Sasori just rolled his eyes. "There, that's it for my clay now for my other ninja tools." Deidara opened his closet and a bunch of ninja tools such as kunai shurikin and ninja wire fell on top of him. "I really should organize my stuff better, hm, but today's not the day." Sasori couldn't help but laugh at Deidara and Naiya laughed too. Naiya reached down and pulled Deidara out of the mess. "Thanks Naiya." Deidara said then he began to put some tools together in another small bag that he wore around his pants. "Well I think that's the last of it. Now we can leave whenever we want." Deidara finished then Naiya instantaneously grabbed Deidara's hand and ran out of his room with him. "I guess we're going now. Bye master."

"Have fun." Sasori called while smirking. Naiya pulled Deidara down the hallway, through the kitchen and out the door and stopped once they were outside. She waited for Deidara to say something but he just smiled at her and laughed.

"Did you want to go now Naiya?" Deidara asked and Naiya grinned widely and nodded her head. "Alright." Deidara laughed again. He reached inside his clay pouch and gobbled up some clay with his right hand. His hands saliva moisturized the clay until it was workable then Deidara's hand spat it out. He closed his hand and formed a familiar clay bird. He threw it on the ground making a couple hand signs to expand it so that it was large enough for the both of them to sit on then turned to Naiya. He noticed her attempting to make the same hand signs as he did but made her own share of errors. His grin grew to a smile as he watched her fingers fumbling around with each then he finally decided to get going. He jumped on top of the bird then held out his hand. Smiling, Naiya took it and Deidara pulled her up then sat behind her and held her down as the bird took off. "We're going to go have so much fun together. I can't wait to show you this great ramen shop in the hidden leaf village. They have the best ramen. You're gonna love it, hm." Deidara said and Naiya laughed getting excited for the time that she will spend alone with Deidara. She looked over the side of the bird to watch the ground moving underneath them then she spread her arms out like the bird and imagined herself flying. Deidara held her by her tiny waist so that he could hang onto her in case she lost her balance then she wouldn't go flying over the edge. Naiya closed her eyes enjoying the moment in the air.


	24. Chapter 24

After hours of flying, Deidara landed the bird in a woodsy area so that they could walk the remainder of the way. Deidara took off his Akatsuki robe and his scared headband and hid it so that no one could suspect where they both come from. As soon as they got off, the bird disappeared into nothing with a popping sound. Naiya looked back to see where the bird had gone but she soon lost interest and faced Deidara. He smiled at her then turned around and walked for the village entrance with Naiya right beside him. The whole village had a giant wall around it, it had to be at least three stories high and the only way in was through the front entrance gate. Deidara and Naiya walked through the giant wooden doors and made in inside the village but they were forced to stop.

"Hey, stop right there." A jounin called. The guy had long spikes that fell over his headband all around but the village symbol was the only part that wasn't infested with hair. There was another man sitting with him as security. It was another jounin, with slightly higher than shoulder length hair and dark brown eyes. They both had dark hair and dark eyes but one had a bandage across his cheeks and over the bridge of his nose and a bit of facial hair on his chin. The other had a mask of some sort that covered his chin but not the rest of his face. Deidara turned to face the two jounin with an uninterested look on his face.

"State your business." The other said.

"We're just travelers here as a getaway, hm." Deidara answered.

"What kind of getaway?"

"Kotetsu, I don't think that we need to be worried about these two. They look like a couple on a date." Deidara blushed when he heard this.

"Izumo, we need to examine all that pass through this gate, you never know if they could be an intruder or not." Kotetsu said.

"Hey to you two know a good place that we can spend a few days in?" Deidara asked.

"Uh yeah, there's this great place a few blocks from here near the hot springs but it's kind of expensive. If you can afford that place then it is well worth staying in." Kotetsu informed.

"Thanks, then we're off." Deidara said leaving the two jounin. Once Deidara and Naiya put a few metres between the two, Deidara turned around to look at them. "Looks like we made it past them alright. Let's see this place that they have been raving about, hm?" Naiya nodded then followed Deidara down the streets. There were many shops down the road, flower shops, dango shops, almost everything that one could buy was down these roads, this village really was good for tourism as well. Konoha's main attraction was the hot springs since this was the biggest and closest. The hot spring pools were separated by gender in case someone wanted to go in there nude but they occasionally have a gender mixture day where all pools are open to any gender. The streets were busy since it was mid afternoon by the time that they got there, everyone had had a chance to wake up and get started on life. "There's a lot of people in this village, hm. It's more crowded then my home town, yeah." Deidara looked over to Naiya, her eyes were fascinated by all the big city stuff that her eyes had never seen before since she was blind and locked away in a room. All the sights and smells boggled her mind wondering what everything is. Deidara finally took his eyes off of Naiya and looked straight ahead and noticed how close they were to the hotel. "Looks like we're almost there, hm. Let's drop our stuff off then we can wander the streets some more." Deidara held the door open for Naiya then he followed her inside the hotel and up to the reception table. "Huh? No one's here?" Naiya found a bell sitting on the table and her eyes gloated at its shiny silver polish and had to touch it. When her fingers touched the top of it she rang it and she jumped behind Deidara then peered over his shoulder at it again then went back to ring it some more. The high pitched noise didn't seem to bother her ears considering how sensitive they are but instead she laughed at the sound that the silver bell made. A grumpy lady came out with a frown on her face.

"Stop ringing that bell." She said rudely. Deidara immediately knew that he wouldn't like this woman. He frowned back at her. The woman took the bell away from Naiya and she whine to herself once it was gone. The woman didn't even bother to ask if she could help them so Deidara finally had to speak up.

"We're looking for a place to stay, yeah."

"I'm on my break." The woman said.

"Yeah, we're kinda in a hurry, hm." Deidara lied. He made a tiny clay bug behind his back, not big enough to kill someone but to startle them and he released it and it crawled into the room that the woman came from.

"If I was the one in a hurry then I would be concerned but since I'm not, I'll just have to leave you to yourselves then." The woman said turning around.

"I don't think that I would do that I if I were you, hm."

"Yeah whatever." The woman walked back to the other room and sat down with a cup of coffee. Deidara snuck around the table and grabbed the key for their most expensive suite then tiptoed away with Naiya. Once they were in the elevator Deidara kept the door open just so that he could see him explode the clay bug beside that woman. She jumped up and swore her head off wondering what just happened. Naiya laughed with Deidara then he closed the elevator door and went up to the top floor.

"That'll teach ya, hm. Don't mess with us, yeah." Deidara smirked, Naiya continued to laugh. Deidara looked over to Naiya blushing that they were alone in an elevator. His heart pounded against his chest, the elevator seemed to be moving slowly to the top floor for him but really he was just experiencing a rush. Naiya looked over to Deidara noticing him blush then he moved his eyes away from hers. Naiya also looked away soon blushing too. Finally the door opened then they both stepped out and continued their search for their suite. "Ah, here it is." Deidara stopped in front of a door and put the keys into the lock. Once he opened the door, they both stood there looking at the most gorgeous suite. It was big and had its own kitchen. All of the rooms were huge, even the bathroom. "Wow this place is beautiful, hm." Deidara said taking a few steps in. Naiya walked in after him and began exploring everything on her hands and knees. Deidara also did his own share of exploring, he checked out the big screen TV with the home theatre system linked to it. When he walked into the bed room, he noticed something; there was only one bed. Either he and Naiya were going to have to share it or he would just have to sleep on the couch. By the looks of this, this is supposed to be a honeymoon suite. There were bottles of wine stored in the fridge and the room had its own bar along with stools. The bathroom had a shower and a Jacuzzi tub in it and this place even had its own balcony that stared out towards the heart of the village. When Deidara walked back to the main room, he found Naiya sitting on a chair watching fish swim around in a fish tank that he missed when walking in here. He walked over to her then stood behind her and kneeled down to her level watching the fish with her. He watched her eyes glow as they followed a tiny school of fish float around in the water. "I should take you swimming one of these days Naiya, then you can swim like a fish." Naiya turned around while looking at Deidara and made a sound almost as if she was asking "really?" Deidara nodded. "Yeah, in fact, let's go get some ramen now, hm? You must be hungry." Naiya nodded then they walked out of the suite, locked up and went back into the elevator. The ride back down wasn't very long at all, it seemed shorter to Deidara, maybe since he had a chance to cool down. Once the elevator hit ground level, they both got out and exited the hotel making their way towards Konoha's famous ramen shop; Ichiraku ramen. "This place has the best ramen, it's really close to here too, un." The building was shack like and had curtains hanging from the ceiling. Deidara lifted the curtains so that his head wouldn't rub against it. They took a seat on the bar chairs.

"What can I get for ya?" A squinty eyed old man asked.

"Two house specials?" Deidara said holding up two fingers.

"Coming up." The man smiled. In what seemed to be no time at all, the old man dropped two large bowls of ramen down in front of them. "Here ya go."

"Ah finally." Deidara smiled pulling out a pair of chopsticks from the tray then he tore them apart and started eating. Naiya looked at the chopsticks then copied Deidara and broke them apart. She tried to hold them the way that Deidara was but she lost her grip and the chopsticks fell out of her hand. Deidara looked over while slurping up noodles and watch Naiya struggle. She tried again but this time she managed to pick up a meat ball but she dropped it on the floor. Deidara smiled while putting down his chopsticks. "Here, hold them like this." Deidara took Naiya's hand and adjusted her fingers the right way. "Now try it, yeah." Naiya tried again but dropped a slice of egg. She groaned but Deidara just laughed. The old man laughed too while cleaning up some dishes. Once the old man was done, he went to the other room to do some cleaning in there. As stubborn as Naiya was, she kept on trying but everything came apart before she could even lift the chopsticks from the bowl. Deidara took her chopsticks and began to feed her the noodles. Naiya slurped up the noodles but made a little bit of a mess on her mouth. Deidara took a napkin and gently wiped around Naiya's mouth with it and cleaned off the ramen broth. "You're a messy eater, hm." Deidara smiled and Naiya smiled with her eyes closed and laughed with him. Deidara fed her another mouthful but this time she managed to slurp it up without making any mess on herself. Naiya grabbed Deidara's chopsticks and clumsily grabbed a meatball with it. She managed to balance the meatball on the sticks then attempted to feed it to Deidara but she lost her grip just before Deidara could put his mouth around it and it went flying in the air. He managed to catch it with his mouth then chewed on it and swallowed with satisfaction. He smiled at her then he continued to feed Naiya until all of her ramen was gone then he worked on his cold ramen by himself. Naiya wanted to help feed Deidara like he had done for her but she seemed to have issues with holding chopsticks so she couldn't help him instead she watched him slurp up the noodles getting broth all over himself. Naiya picked up his napkin this time and wiped his mouth dry while smiling sweetly, Deidara smiled back. Deidara reached into his pocket and placed the exact amount of money that he owed the ramen shop then he got up. "Come on Naiya, let's go back to the hotel, hm? We've had a long day of travel, yeah." Naiya followed beside Deidara as they walked down the street back to their luxurious suite." Naiya nodded and followed close by Deidara eyeing the passing people. She noticed some couples that were walking past them while holding hands and some people even kissed. Naiya looked down at Deidara's lonely hands swaying by his side while walking down the roads of Konoha. She too wanted to hold a hand, she wanted to hold Deidara's hand and show her feelings to him instead she followed the path with her head to the ground. Once they got back to their suite, Naiya went over to the living area and bounced on a couch wanting Deidara to do something else with her. "We should watch a movie, hm?" Deidara requested. Naiya bounced on the couch and nodded. Deidara sat down beside her and picked up the remote and scrolled through the hotels movie listings. "You pick the movie, Naiya." Deidara said. Naiya watched as Deidara continued to scroll through the movies, suddenly Naiya pointed to a movie and Deidara put the cursor on it. "That one?" He asked and Naiya nodded.

Naiya picked this movie because on the cover, it had a man and a woman staring into each others' eyes passionately and this reminded her of the times that Deidara had looked into her eyes like this and it just so happened to be a romance type of movie. Naiya sat close to Deidara and rested her head on his shoulder as the movie started. As the movie went onwards, Naiya learned the signs of love, she learned more about kissing as she watched the couple make out and have their first kiss and she learned more about the words "I love you," and when to use them. Some of the moments that the main characters had in the movie were a lot like some that Deidara had with Naiya and this made Naiya wonder if Deidara loved her. She noticed the woman resting her head on her lovers shoulders at one point in the movie just like Naiya was doing with Deidara while watching and when they slept, they would be cuddling with each other. She also watched the couple doing naughty things but she sensed that a couple only does those things if they are serious about each other. This movie made Naiya realize that she and Deidara have displayed affection towards one another and the both have returned the affection like a couple in love would normally do and this made her realize that Deidara is the only one that she wanted to be with. She could have everything else taken away from her and she would still be happy as long as she was with Deidara. If he was removed from her life, she imagined that she would have no more purpose. She felt that her painful past of being alone and tortured had some meaning if it meant that Deidara would be with her forever. She still had her head leant on Deidara's shoulder, she moved her head up then down then closed her eyes and imagined her and Deidara being the characters in the movie.

Deidara could sense that Naiya was taking in from this movie. To her she was using it like a documentary that she would apply to her life but in reality this movie was made for pure entertainment. He on the other hand was watching this movie for Naiya since it was more like a chick-flick, he would have preferred something with a little more action but he wanted Naiya to be happy. He too also learned from this movie and realized that he had displayed a lot of affection towards Naiya and this made him think about his feelings towards her. Once the credits started to roll at the end of the movie, Naiya made a sound of sadness showing that she was disappointed that the movie had finally finished.

"You really liked that movie, hm?" Deidara smiled while turning off the TV. Naiya nodded but she did not smile back instead she yawned. "It's really late, we should go to bed if I am going to take you swimming tomorrow." Deidara said. Naiya suddenly lifted her head and looked at Deidara then jumped on top of him and hugged him. He wrapped his arms around her. After a while, Naiya got up and went into the bed room to put her nightwear on. Deidara took off his clothes and stripped down to his boxers and kept a shirt on to cover his chest then he reached up to take out his hair. After a while, Naiya opened the door to the bedroom and walked over to the couch that Deidara was sitting on. "You can have the bed Naiya, I'll sleep here for the night, yeah." Deidara said but he noticed Naiya looking sad after he said those words. Naiya took Deidara's hand and pulled him into the bedroom then she pointed at the bed. While blushing, Deidara got into the bed with Naiya. Naiya curled up beside Deidara with her head on his chest. Nervously, Deidara felt the urge to put his arm around Naiya so he did so feeling very satisfied afterwards. He looked down at Naiya's closed eyes and watched her breasts rise and fall from the rhythm of her breath. After he made sure that Naiya was asleep, he was tempted to kiss Naiya on the top of the head but he feared that it would wake her up so instead he too closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.


	25. Chapter 25

The next morning, Naiya had woken up to find herself alone in bed after a good night's sleep. Deidara had been up for about an hour already and had just stepped out of the shower. He reached for the towel that was hanging up within his reach from the shower and patted his face dry then he used it to wipe down the rest of his body. He took a second towel and rubbed his hair quickly and countless times to dry it somewhat before he combed it out. While Deidara finished up in the bathroom, Naiya tried to make breakfast for them to eat together and wanted to surprise him. She searched the cupboards for two bowls then she took out some cereal and poured it into the bowls. She added some pre-cut strawberries and sprinkled a little white sugar in it to sweeten their cereal. She left the milk for last so that they could each pour their preferred amount and not get the cereal all soggy in case Deidara took longer than expected. Naiya set the cereal on the table right next to each other and put spoons down and napkins next to the bowls then she took out some cups and filled it with orange juice. This was the one thing that she could make without too much chaos. As she was cleaning up the small mess that she made, Deidara finally came out of the bathroom. He stood there looking at the breakfast that Naiya had prepared for him and smiled at her. Naiya smiled back at him and then Deidara sat down at the table. Naiya poured some milk into his cereal then he started to eat and Naiya did the same.

"I was so shocked that you put this together that I forgot to say good morning, yeah?" Deidara smiled. Naiya grinned too after putting a spoonful of cereal in her mouth. "How does swimming sound later, hm? We would need to go get you a swimming suit though." Deidara said and Naiya got excited. After Deidara took his last spoonful of cereal, he lifted the bowl to his lips and drank the sweet milk, Naiya did the same except she had a few strawberries left. Deidara watched her as she mindlessly picked up a slice of strawberry with her fingers and sucked the juice out of it before biting down on it and squeezing her teeth against it. She did the same thing with the last strawberry then she got up and cleaned both of their bowls up. Deidara sat there for a minute and watched her but then he got up too after her and walked over to the sink where Naiya was standing. He stood there and smiled at her. "I'll clean up, Naiya, as a thank you for making breakfast, yeah." Deidara said. Naiya nodded and blushed then she set the bowls on the counter and sat on the couch and watched Deidara work. Deidara didn't realize that he was being watched as he washed the dishes. Once he was finished washing and drying the dishes, he turned back to Naiya. "Ready to go swim suit shopping, hm?" He asked, Naiya jumped up and smiled. She walked Deidara's way and grabbed his hand and pulled him out of their suite and into the elevator and they began to go downwards. They had to stop almost every other floor to let on more people, it got so crowded that they had to turn people away to wait for another elevator car. Once the elevator reached ground level, the people stormed out of it and left the hotel in a hurry as for Deidara and Naiya, they just took their time. "I wonder why all of a sudden all those people left, yeah?" Deidara wondered as he held the door open for Naiya. They walked down a few roads looking for a shop and eventually they found one that specialized in underwater fun. "Okay, you pick out any bathing suits that you like and you try them on, yeah. We will buy the one that fits you the best and that you like the most." Naiya nodded and went about the store picking out many different types of swim suits; bikinis, tenkinis, one-pieces a little bit of everything. She tried them all on in a change room without needing anyone to help her. She narrowed it down to three bikinis but they all fit her well and she liked them all equally the same so she sat in the change room looking and comparing for a while making Deidara wait for an unnecessary amount of time.

A thought came into Deidara's mind but this would require him to leave Naiya for a little while by herself if he wanted to surprise her with something but he was not to leave her alone at all during this mission but he really wanted to do something for her before they went any further. He negotiated with a store clerk and bribed him with a wad of Kakuzu's money that he had on him and asked him to keep a close eye on Naiya with his life while he left her for a little while. Deidara knocked on the change room door that Naiya was in. "Naiya, I have to go do something. You stay in here until I get back, un. I won't be long." Naiya waved her hand over the door where Deidara could see it then he left. While Deidara was gone, Naiya contemplated the three bikini's and she had narrowed it down by the time he got back. She put it on with her clothes overtop for easy access so that she could change without a change room right in front of Deidara. The store clerk scanned the tag that Naiya had torn off. "I guess we will need a couple towels too, hm." Deidara said. Naiya went to the other side of the store and grabbed two towels that formed to make one picture and set them on the counter. They paid for all of their stuff then they left the store and Deidara led Naiya over to the beach. This beach was a private beach that not many people go to because it wasn't very well known. Palm trees stood high above the sand and some even leaned out towards the water. When they got there, Naiya's eyes glowed as she looked at the beautiful scenery and then she eventually noticed a small picnic that Deidara had set up while he was gone. "Here we are, un." Deidara walked over to the picnic and set down their towels at sat on it. Smiling, Naiya sat down beside him. "The first rule of swimming, is don't swim on a full stomach so we'll eat later, hm." Deidara said taking off his clothes until he had just his shirt and trunks on. Naiya turned her back to Deidara then she too stripped down. As she took off her pants, Deidara's hear pounded against his chest and once she turned around, his heart stopped and melted as he looked at her with just her bikini on. He stood speechless as Naiya smiled in front of him. Deidara couldn't believe how beautiful she looked. He stood choking on what to say but Naiya turned around and ran for the water but stopped after being up to her knees in the ocean. She turned around and smiled at Deidara and waited for him to come to her. Deidara got up and threw his shirt off and went to her. Naiya's smile disappeared for a moment. She looked at Deidara's muscular body and blushed then her eyes caught the stitching on both of Deidara's arms and memories came back to her head for a moment. She also noticed something else; right overtop of where Deidara's heart should be on the left half of his chest, he had something stitched closed and it looked like his skin was tattooed around it but really it was just a seal. Swirls surround the stitching on all four corners. Deidara chuckled a little bit when seeing her reaction then he pointed at the stitching on his chest. "I guess you're wondering what this is, hm? This is another mouth. I've stitched it shut so that I don't use it unless I have too, un." Deidara smiled at Naiya for a while. "Now can you swim or do you want me to show you how?" Deidara asked and Naiya nodded. "First of all, try floating on your back like this." Deidara demonstrated to Naiya then Naiya tried it herself. He placed his hands underneath her floating body just in case she sank. Naiya looked up into Deidara's eyes as she floated beneath next to him and he watched her green hair flow all around her with the gentle waves of the ocean. He got lost in the moment while watching Naiya but he came back to it as she stood up.

Hours passed as Deidara helped Naiya to swim and she grew more successful as the time went by. Deidara called for her to swim to him from a short distance and Naiya got down into the water and paddled herself towards him. The current carried her from side to side but she managed to stay on course. Deidara cheered for her and they laughed together as she got closer and closer to him. Once she was just beneath him, Deidara picked her up and she jumped into his arms and squeezed herself to his muscular body. He squeezed her back and pressed her tightly against this body. Her wet hair stuck to Deidara's bare chest. Deidara looked down at Naiya while still holding her and noticed her fingers lightly touching the stitched mouth on his chest. He watched her fingers glide along his skin as she traced the swirls and the seal marks around it. He rested his head on top of hers for a moment and stroked her wet hair. Deidara noticed that there were Goosebumps forming on Naiya's skin so he picked her up bridal style with ease and carried her out of the water. He took her over to the towels and placed her on one and wrapped the other around her to try to keep her warm. "You must be hungry, hm? Swimming is good exercise and can really wear a person down, yeah." Deidara said taking out some sushi. He sat right next to her and put his arm around her and began to feed her. Naiya rested her head on Deidara's chest as he continued to feed her. Deidara felt that he should tell Naiya about his feelings towards her but he wanted her to be able to say her thoughts too and he wondered if she loved him too. "Naiya," he began in a low voice. "I have something I want to tell you." His words began to slow and deepen as Naiya looked seriously into his eyes. "Hm, it's been a long time since when master Sasori and I rescued you from your village and I'm glad that we did because I wouldn't be having this much fun with you right now if I didn't. I love it when you smile, I love it when you laugh, I feel heartbroken when you cry because I know something is hurting you. You mean more to me than anything that I have ever had in my life and I don't want that to change." Naiya remembered in the movie that her and Deidara watched, there was a scene like this where the man said what he loved about the woman and then they confessed their love for each other. Naiya waited for those three words to come out of Deidara's mouth. As she looked up into his eyes, she noticed three kids playing in the background. There was one that was tied up at the hands and legs and two other kids were play hitting him with a stick. Deidara stopped for a moment and noticed how unusually wide Naiya's eyes have gotten, something was bothering her, her eyes looked similar to the time that she killed that man too protect Deidara when he took her back to her home village. "Naiya?" She gave no response, she kept her eyes on the kids, her eyebrows rose into a terrified position and then fell on the floor with her hands to her head and her voice shook the groaning sound that she made with panic. Deidara jumped up and tried to snap her out of her state of shock and even screamed a bit. Naiya lied on the ground in the same position while trembling with memories coming back to her.

Flashback (remember she is blind here)

"Come on guys let's get rid of her so we can save our village and our families." A jounin said opening up two doors. Two anbu black ops came through the room behind their leader dragging Naiya by her arms with them. While screaming her chains clanked and clashed against each other as she fought to get away. They tossed her up onto a table that was stained with her own blood and pressed her body against it to prevent her from moving only to take off her chains and replace them with the heaviest duty rope that they could find. They tied her hands and feet so hard together that any movement she made, the rope would cut into her skin. They did this all with Naiya screaming and crying as if she had seen death because she knew what was going to happen, they were going to attempt to exterminate her again. They would break every bone in her body if necessary they even tried to cut of limbs in the past but that was impossible since her Jinchuriki would step in and save her before the cut became too deep. This was becoming a routine for her, people would bring her down in an underground cell attempt to exterminate her, her Jinchuriki would step in when her life was just hanging on by a thread and save her then she would kill everyone that was in the room out of fear for her life. Although it was a routine, it wasn't a routine because with all the pain that she goes through, each time is as a new experience bringing more suffering each time. Once her arms and legs were tied together, they threw her against the grimy wall as hard as they could then they took out metal maces, large rocks and a whip. The sound of when the jounin cracked the whip made Naiya scream louder. The jounin cracked the whip once more then swung it as hard as he could on Naiya's bare back creating a large gash that blood spilled out as soon as the leather whip made contact with her bare skin.

One anbu laughed while picking up a stone, he tossed it upwards twice then flung it as hard as he could and hit Naiya on the thigh breaking the bone in the process, the other anbu did the same and they continued throwing rocks from the distance so she couldn't run after them. Each time a rock made contact with Naiya's body, she screamed a blood curdling scream that echoed down the hallways of the underground passage they took to get to this place. Nearly all of her bones were broken on her legs, torso and arms so the anbu moved towards her to attack her with the mace and cut into her flesh with it. Blood spilt out of her body and poured onto the cement floor. She screamed as she moved her crushed arm to try to block it but the mace cut into her hand. After so much damage had been done to her body and from the loss of blood, she passed out and fangs began to grow from her teeth and her nails grew as she commenced to transform into her Jinchuriki. Her body laid on the floor as the spirit of the Jinchuriki came out and killed the jounin and anbu black ops using the weapons that they had used on her. Once the Jinchuriki returned to Naiya's body, she regained consciousness and was unable to move, since her arms and legs had been crushed, and lied in a lake of her blood crying alone.

End of flash back

Naiya laid on the beach crying with her hands pressed firmly to her head. Deidara reached down to her and tried to snap her out of her memories. He picked her up and held her tight to his chest. He lifted one had and put it on the back of her head as she buried her face in his chest and he began to stroke her damp hair with his thumb.

"It's okay Naiya, I'm here for you, un." He whispered continuing to hold her close to him.

That evening, after Naiya's recollections, was slightly calmer in her mind but she still thought back to those days a little. She was mostly disappointed in herself because here she thought that Deidara was going to tell her that he loved her and she goes and ruins the moment that she had been waiting for. Naiya sat on a couch and stared out at the village's lights that enhanced the starry sky. She placed both of her arms on the window sill and rested her head on them and sighed. Once again, the moment that they had together had been ruined. Naiya longed for the day that she could reach out and hold Deidara's hand knowing that that's what he wanted but until Deidara made the first move, she felt hesitant and didn't want to ruin things between them so she kept silent. She also felt depressed because she couldn't talk and if she could talk, it would make it a lot easier between the two. If Deidara did tell her that he loved her, she couldn't say those words back. She felt so stupid, like she couldn't do anything right and wondered why she couldn't talk. She could understand him fine, it's just that she had little ways of communicating with him. She really wanted to tell Deidara how she felt about him but she couldn't so those feelings continued aching inside her heart.

Deidara was sitting at the wooden kitchen table and was working on a new masterpiece and he couldn't help but notice Naiya sitting quietly on the couch looking out at the rooftops of the village as if she was deep in thought. He couldn't see her eyes but he could just tell from the position of her head and the limpness of her body that she was beating herself up inside but what could he do to make her feel better? Deidara set down his tools and folded his arms across his chest trying to come up with a way to make her smile but his mind drew a blank. Deidara was also kicking himself for not telling Naiya earlier right away at the beach about how he felt about her and now he didn't know when the right time was. The timing at the beach seemed so perfect, the atmosphere was beautiful and now he wondered when the next opportunity would come for him to confess. He quietly got up and sat next to Naiya and rested his head on his arms like Naiya was doing and gazed out at the stars with her from the window.

"Nice night out, hm?" Deidara said looking over at Naiya, she nodded her head not making eye contact with him. "The stars are art." Deidara looked back at the clusters of stars shining in the black sky with a silver moon beaming lunar light onto the earth. The beauty of the night sky reminded him of Naiya's warm smile and bright eyes whenever she was around him, it just made him feel like life was perfect whenever he seen her smile at him. He looked back over to her but instead of her usual smile being on her face, he noticed stains from tears on her cheeks then seen a few more tears rolling down her cheek. He reached over and wiped her tears with his thumbs and she looked over to him. "Don't cry. It breaks my heart to see you like this, un." Naiya forced a smile on her face but Deidara could tell that it was fake. "You didn't do anything wrong, so why are you crying?" Naiya buried her face in her arms and Deidara's heart sank when he realized what he said was stupid. Why did he have to ask her a question like that? He knows she can't talk. "Are you crying because you can't talk?" Naiya nodded with a few more tears tumbling down her cheek and Deidara reached over to put his arm around her to try to comfort her. "It's alright not being able to talk, yeah. I mean it's not like you don't understand me right. I like you just the way you are, in fact I will like you no matter what . Plus I think its kinda cute in a way, hm." Naiya chuckled lightly making Deidara smile and blushing at the same time for he realized what he said sounded lamely cheesy but at least it made her smile again. Naiya moved closer to him and rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes not intending to sleep. Deidara lifted up his one free hand and ran it through Naiya's hair along her head then followed the natural flow downwards until the lack of hair caused it to fall out of his hands. Deidara continued to play with Naiya's hair, twisting it around and running it through his fingers while she smiled and looked out at the stars still with her head gently rested on his shoulder. The next time Deidara looked back down at Naiya, he seen that she was silently sleeping so he picked up her tiny body, bridal style without waking her, and carried her into the bedroom and set her on the bed then reached for the sheets and tucked her in. He sat right beside her kneeling over the bed with his head resting on a hand and gazed at her for what seemed to be the longest time. "Hm, swimming can really ware a person down, yeah." He smirked and he just kept on smiling while staring at her, he couldn't take his eyes off of her. He took this opportunity to caress her soft cheek with the back of his hand. He gently stroked her pale soft skin with his rough callused hand. She was so fair and her skin was so perfect but Deidara looked at himself and compared. All of these years of training to be a ninja and making art has caused his hands to tighten up and his skin was so thick compared to hers. She looked as if she had the skin of a newborn. Deidara put his hand down then stood up and kissed her ever so gently on her forehead then walked out of the room and closed the door quietly behind him. Once he was back in the main room, he found a hologram of Pein waiting to talk to him. Deidara preformed the same jutsu so that he could be displayed at the Akatsuki base.

"I've been waiting to hear from you. How goes it over there?" Pein asked.

"Fine, no sign of Orochimaru anywhere, un. Has anything happened at the base?"

"No but we have been keeping our security tight to make him think that Naiya is still here. I don't think it is safe to come back, we are expecting him to attack soon though." Pein said but then he stopped and noticed a twinkle in Deidara's eyes. He was going to ask about it but then he decided not to but then the expression on Deidara's face changed as he remembered something important that needed to be told.

"Oh and leader-sama, something has happened to Naiya while we were here. It's not bad but she and I were out and she seen something and I think some memories came back to her of the time that she had spent in her village, but they weren't good memories, un."

"Is this the first time that this has happened to Naiya?"

"Yeah, yeah. Also, is there anything that we can do to help Naiya talk?" Deidara asked but Pein just shook his head.

"No there isn't. Fortunately there was a jutsu that I did to help her see but there is nothing on talking that is in my power."

"Why can't she talk? Is it a seal that has been put on her, hm?"

"I doubt it, otherwise we would have seen some markings on her if it was."

"How's master Sasori doing, hm?" Deidara asked curiously.

"He's doing fine, he isn't one that you should be worried for. Tobi on the other hand misses you like crazy and wants you to come back home."

"Hmph, I don't care about Tobi. He's just going to have to wait until I get back if he wants to see me again, hm." Deidara yawned. "Tell master I said "Hi!" I'm going to go to bed. Later leader-sama." Deidara waved then cancelled his jutsu and as did Pein. Deidara yawned again stretching his arms out wide then put them down to his side. He went back to the room that Naiya was sleeping in and stripped down to his boxers. Once he took off his shirt, he looked at the mouth on his chest for a minute through a mirror that was on the doors of the closet. When Naiya had seen that today, she wasn't afraid of it. She handled it really well. He threw his shirt that he was holding in his hands on the floor and got on the bed. He went under the sheets and laid down facing Naiya and she faced him while sleeping. Deidara couldn't help but stare at her and was tempted to play with her hair some more. Something about her made Deidara want to touch her passionately and just stare at her until time itself stopped. Deidara had a hard time getting to sleep since he was so into watching Naiya sleep, he just couldn't stop thinking of her but eventually he managed to get some rest.


	26. Chapter 26

The next morning, Naiya was up before Deidara again but this time she wasn't making breakfast for the both of them, she had a pile of books and papers on the coffee table and was sitting on the floor with a pen in hand trying to teach herself how to read and write. She figured since she couldn't talk, she could communicate with Deidara by writing. She was making little success given that she had no idea what she was doing. She had started by looking at books and trying to copy the letters and putting them into an order that made no sense at all, she didn't even know how to hold a pen properly. Her writing looked like she was using the wrong hand and she was pressing down so hard that the ink from the pen bled through the paper but thankfully she was writing on a stack of papers so it didn't wreck the table.

Deidara finally woke up and as soon as he opened his eyes, he cocked his head over to the side of the bed that Naiya usually slept on and found she was not there. Without noticing, he sniffed the air and realized that Naiya's sweet scent was strong in the room. His heart skipped a beat when he smelt her aroma. Without further delay, Deidara got out of bed and dressed himself then he went out of the room. He looked around for Naiya and couldn't see her anywhere so he began to panic but as he walked around to search for her and behind a three person couch, he found her sitting on the ground writing nonsense on a stack of papers. He was relieved to see her there. Deidara walked around the couch and sat down beside Naiya and watch her fumbling with the pen, he had to smile at her efforts though because she looked so cute. Naiya turned her head to Deidara and flashed a smile, the same sweet smile that she always has on her face.

"Here try holding your pen like this, un." Deidara said adjusting her hand to the proper position. Naiya tried writing again, it looked a little neater because of her better grip but it still looked like a child's writing. Deidara moved his arm around her and held her writing hand and guided her hand along with the pen and drew three Japanese characters on the paper spelling out something that Naiya couldn't read. "That's how you spell your name, yeah." Deidara smiled at Naiya. She looked closely at the characters and copied them out again this time by herself. It was messy but readable. She smiled again at her success. Deidara pointed out each character and sounded them out slow enough so that Naiya could get it through her head but she couldn't repeat them back to him. Deidara held her hand again and traced out four more characters with her then sat back and let her look at it for a while. She copied those characters out again by herself and looked at them to compare. "That one is my name. De-i-da-ra." He sounded out each syllable. Naiya moved her lips in the position of each syllable of Deidara's name and tried to say them out loud but nothing came out, not even a squeak. Deidara watched Naiya's lips move to the rhythm of his name and he was depressed that there was nothing that he could do to help her talk. Naiya kept on trying to say his name but she sighed and gave up and went back to writing their names out. She wrote both of their names out one after another; Deidara Naiya, Deidara Naiya, Deidara Naiya. As Naiya wrote their names together, Deidara looked at their names together on the sheet of paper and he couldn't help but think of them being together forever like their names were stained into the paper forever.

Three hours went by fast for the two, Deidara taught Naiya how to write both of their names in katakana letters as well as other simple words, he even taught her how to read them. Although Naiya couldn't repeat the words out loud, she got them memorized in her head as well as the sound but Deidara wasn't too sure if she could actually read them since she could not speak them back. He looked down at the small stack of papers that had been used and observed the slow progress that Naiya was making and as Deidara read through a magazine that was laying on the coffee table, he seen a picture of people dancing at a disco and it gave him an idea. He abruptly rose from the couches and smiled.

"I've got an idea of what we can do today, hm." He said looking out the widow then he looked down at Naiya. "Come on." He said gently while holding out his hand. Naiya took it and Deidara guided them down and outside the hotel and they made their way through the streets. "You're really going to love this, un." Deidara said slowly walking with Naiya. She looked up into the bright sunny sky and wondered what Deidara had in mind for them to do. Countless numbers of birds flew over their heads while chirping a good spirited song as many citizens of Konoha came outside in the afternoon. "Here we are, hm." Deidara said just outside of a building with closed doors. Deidara opened the door up for Naiya and they walked inside together. Naiya stood at the entrance and looked around at all of the dancing people. There was a DJ on a floor a few steps below ground level and a bar off to the side where people went to mingle after they danced up a storm. Naiya walked a few steps further into the building during a song change and suddenly stopped from the loudness of the new song being played. She fell to her knees as she covered her sensitive ears in pain. Deidara ran over to the DJ master and asked if he could turn the music down slightly for he explained Naiya's situation with her sensitive ears. The DJ wasn't for the idea but Deidara won him over with a bribe of Kakuzu's money. Deidara sat Naiya down at a table and made sure that she was alright before they went on the dance floor. "The art about dancing is that all you have to do is move your body. You don't have to be an expert, un." Naiya nodded at Deidara and watched people dancing and some were making themselves look like idiots, she laughed while watching the idiots. "Are you ready to try it?" He asked her while smiling, she too smiled and nodded then together they walked down three steps onto the dance floor and started to move their bodies. Deidara wasn't a bad dancer, in fact, he blended right in with the crowds dancing skills which was slightly better than the average person, as for Naiya, she was struggling because of her poor balance but she managed not to step on any ones toes. Fortunately it wasn't late at night so there were no dirty dancers that were needed to be worried about so Naiya's innocent eyes were safe. There were a couple drunken dancers on the floor but they managed to not completely ruin it for other people that were dancing around them. One fast song played after another for five lively songs and Naiya was tired so she had to sit down on the sidelines. Deidara walked with her and got her a drink from the bar to help cool her down. Naiya panted and tried to gain her breath back so that she could go back and dance some more with Deidara. "Are you having fun here?" Deidara asked while panting. Naiya nodded and laughed. They waited it out for a song but then a slow ballad came on and automatically Deidara blushed wondering what Naiya was thinking. Naiya watched couples dance slowly to the slow song and danced so close that their bodies rubbed against their partner for every movement they made. Naiya blushed while watching them then looked over to Deidara and found that he was smiling at her. "Do you want to dance with me?" Deidara asked holding out his hand. Naiya nodded and took it and Deidara led her down the steps back onto the dance floor. He placed one of Naiya's hands on his shoulder and he held the other one in his right hand and he wrapped his arm around her waist. They nervously gazed deeply into each other's eyes as they slowly swayed on their feet from side to side. As they looked at one another, the other people that were around them seemed to disappear for they were only focused on themselves. Naiya looked over had her hand, finally she was able to hold Deidara's hand. Deidara's hand licked Naiya's palm and made her gasp a little bit and he chuckled and so did Naiya then she put her head on his chest and closed her eyes. Deidara put his chin on top of her head and lowered his other hand down around her tiny waist. Slowly without them noticing, people began to leave the dance floor leaving them and a few other couples behind to finish the song. Deidara lifted one of his arms and put his hand under Naiya's chin and raised it up so that they were looking into each other's eyes again. He began moving his face closer to hers, his heart pace sped up just as his lips about to touch hers. They could feel each other's breath on the others lips but just before their lips met, Deidara looked up and gasped. "No! It's the Kyuubi Jinchuriki, if he sees me and recognizes us, our cover will be blown for sure. Why the heck does he happen to be here, hm? Is this his home village?" He thought. Naruto came into the room with a couple friends and were approaching the dance floor quickly. "Naiya, come with me, we have to go now." Deidara held her hand and hurried her along to the back of the store then opened up the back door and snuck out there and hid in the alley. "I seen the boy that I fought against a while back, if he had spotted us, there would have been big trouble." Naiya lowered her head since Naruto robbed her of a kiss from Deidara that she had been waiting for. Deidara looked around the corner cautiously to make sure that the coast was clear then he took Naiya's hand and ran past the building and down the streets into a woodsy area with trees surrounding a small lake. They stopped at a park bench to catch their breath.

"I'm sorry Naiya." Deidara said looking down at the leaves that the wind was blowing across the grass. Naiya looked into Deidara's saddened eyes that did not meet hers. She tilted her head slightly as her way of asking "why" but Deidara's eyes were glued to the ground and he clutched his hands against the park bench. Naiya just rested her head on his shoulder to show that she was there for him, Deidara smiled and looked down at her. The small action of Naiya putting her head on Deidara's shoulder made him feel better. Something caught Naiya's eyes. Down on the ground closer to the water was a mother duck and three little ducklings following behind it. Naiya got off of the park bench and went on her hands and knees and slowly crawled towards them. Deidara watched Naiya observe the ducks. Naiya got closer and closer to the ducks until one step snapped a twig causing the mother duck to raise its head and it eyed Naiya as being a predator. She began closing in the distance between her and the ducklings again but they ran away when they seen her coming. She sat on the ground sad that the ducks left her. Deidara laughed. He got up and went to a bird feeder and grabbed a handful of seeds and placed them in Naiya's hand. "Try these, hm." He said then he stepped back to watch Naiya. A couple birds landed on the ground near Naiya and timidly tiptoed over to her. She slowly lowered her hands that were full of bird seed so that she wouldn't scare away the bird. One bird ran away but the other one came closer. Naiya's face lit up when the birds tiny feet met the top of her fingers, it leaned down to nibble on a few birdseeds then the other one came on her hand too. A few more smaller birds came to her and nibbled on the seeds then flew away. Soon there was only a few seeds left and a single bird was faithful enough to stay with Naiya. Deidara smiled. She pulled her cupped hands up closer to her face so that she could inspect the bird more closely but a raindrop fell on her hand and scared the bird away. The sky darkened as the rain thickened up creating puddles on the ground. Naiya looked up at the sky to see what was causing the wetness, it was slightly hard for her to configure since it was raining on her face, it was hard to keep her eyes open while looking directly upwards. Soon the both of them were soaked. "Come Naiya, let's go home before we get sick, hm?" Deidara said and Naiya nodded. Everyone in the village had disappeared to the indoors from the rain as they walked back, there was no one but them walking the streets.

Once they got back to their hotel room, Deidara threw his jacket on a chair to dry and they set their shoes over by the lit gas fireplace to dry off. He looked over at Naiya and seen her shivering and her skin was developing goose bumps. "You should have a bath to warm yourself up. Plus it's not good to be cold and wet. I don't want you to get sick on me." Deidara smiled and Naiya smiled back while severely shivering. He walked into the bathroom and filled up the bathtub with hot water and stood there watching the tub so that it wouldn't overflow and Naiya stood beside him watching him check the temperature making sure that it's not too hot. Once it was three quarters full, Deidara shut the water off and set a towel nearby. "There you go, un. One hot bath. I'm going to go lay on the couch then we can do something else when you're done, hm." He said and Naiya smiled. Deidara went back to the main room and took off a load on a couch. Naiya closed the door and put her hand in the warm tub tingling it back to life. She took off her shirt and skirt but stopped after that. She looked at her wet self in the mirror for a moment then opened the door slightly to see what Deidara was doing. He was still on the couch with his eyes closed fast asleep sprawled out taking up the whole area. Naiya smiled at him with a warm heart then closed the door. When Naiya turned around to go to the tub, two men stood behind her watching her.

"Hello there." One of the two men said standing in the bathroom in front of Naiya. One man had two heads, it looked like one was sleeping behind him and the other man had strange markings on his lower eyelids as well as just above his eyebrows. Naiya stood there cowering in fear but then started to turn around to open up the door but the two headed man stepped behind her and knocked her out by the neck, both of them laughed. "I can't let you do that."

Deidara finally opened his eyes but had to give it time to adjust to the lighting on the ceiling then he sat up and put his feet on the floor.

"How long was I out for, hm?" Deidara asked himself then he looked over at a clock that was on a wall behind him. "Only two hours, but still, I promised Naiya that we would do something together since that stupid Jinchuriki ruined everything, yeah. Where is Naiya anyways?" Deidara got up and looked in the bedroom to see if she was napping there but she wasn't so he knocked on the bathroom door to see if she was still in there. "Naiya are you in there?" He asked then he pressed his ear against the door to listen for any movement, but there was none. He tried to open the door but he realized it was locked so he grabbed a senbon and began to pick the lock. After a few attempts, Deidara finally got all of the needles in the right position then he pushed the back of the lock to unlock it then he pushed the door open. Once the door swung open, Deidara gasped and the senbon fell out of his hand. Naiya's clothes were on the floor, the tub was still full and she hadn't picked up her towel to use it at all. He cocked his head upwards from the floor and noticed the window wide open. The window was large enough for someone to crawl through. He ran over there to look out of it and once that he realized that Naiya had been taken he grew enraged.

"Sh**!" He shouted as loud as he could while he slammed his fist against the window sill creating a large dent on it. Without delay, Deidara made a sculpture of a clay bird then gave it life then hopped on and began the search for Orochimaru's layer. While in flight, he performed a jutsu that carried him back to the base in a hologram.

"Deidara, what brings you here?" Pein asked when Deidara went into his office. Pein noticed an expression on Deidara's face that normally isn't displayed by him.

"Orochimaru has captured Naiya and has taken her away." He scowled.

"What, he just attacked us not too long ago and they didn't even reach here. How could he have known? He must have been launching attacks on us to make us think that he thought that Naiya was still here but really he must have known that you and here evaded the premises. No matter, we need to get Naiya back. I will send everyone out after her. His base is in the sound village."

"Orochimaru that b******." Deidara said just before cancelling the jutsu. He directed his bird towards the village hidden in the sound and planned how he should invade. "I'll kill that son of a b****." Deidara thought with his fists tightening. Deidara was mostly heated at himself for falling asleep at the most poor timing, but then again, Orochimaru was probably waiting for Deidara to slip up but still if Deidara had been awake, he could have prevented this from happening. Either way, Deidara planned on making Orochimaru pay with his life. While thinking of the event that had just taken place, Deidara's teeth had been constricted against each other and his fists have been clenched so tight that he had been cutting off his circulation and his hands began to feel numb.


	27. Chapter 27

A day and a half later, Deidara had still been flying, headed for the hidden sound village. He refused to stop for anything, sleep food, water, all he wanted was to have Naiya back. He had been given some time to cool off his anger but the anger only turned into sadness due to his lack of sleep. He sat there with his hair flowing in the wind that was being created during his flight and buried his head in his hands feeling severely depressed feeling that this was his fault. He squeezed his eyes shut in his hands and clenched his teeth together while thinking of her.

"Why, why did you have to take her from me Orochimaru? I didn't even get a chance to tell her yet." Deidara prayed that Orochimaru didn't kill her. Deidara just wanted to hold her in his arms at least once again. He wanted to run his fingers through her soft hair and caress her pale cheeks once again. He promised that he would do anything to protect her and if there was a chance, he would be willing to give up his life before she was to even get the slightest bit hurt by anyone. Deidara already missed her smile, he missed everything about her and the thought of not being by her side pierced his heart in two. "No, I can't think like this. There's still a chance, un." Deidara repeated to himself to try to calm himself down.

At one of Orochimaru's bases, the two ninja that captured Naiya dragged her inside and brought her into a room lit with candles and dropped her in front of Orochimaru's throne then took a few steps back. Orochimaru lifted his head and peered through his long black hair at the three before him. Naiya still laid unconscious on the floor. A corner of Orochimaru's mouth lifted upwards.

"Good work Sakon and Kimimaro." He laughed and the others joined him. Naiya began to move on the ground a bit then she opened her eyes. She whimpered when she looked around the room at the unfamiliar grinning faces, Deidara was nowhere to be found, then her eyes locked onto Orochimaru's. His eyes were pure evil, a piercing yellow color with a snake like slit for the pupil, his eyes looked like the door to death. "There there my dear, there's nothing to be afraid of." He grinned at Naiya for a few seconds then he lifted his hand and used his index finger saying come here. As he did that, Sakon and Kimimaro stepped forward and grabbed Naiya by the arm, she whined once their cold hands made contact with her upper arm and soon screamed from being dragged away.

Flash back

Naiya screamed as she was being dragged down a dirt hallway by her hair and she clutched to her head to try to ease the pain but she could still feel her whole body weight being pulled by her head. The person pulling her clearly didn't care if she got hurt because he dragged her over rocks and sharp objects that cut into her back in order to get to where he was going. A few hairs snapped from the static friction of her body against the ground. Finally she stopped for a moment but only to be thrown against a wall and tumble to the mud ground again. Her ankles were shackled forcefully together by a ball and chain and she was forced up by her hair again, screaming again, and someone took her arms and spread them out on the cold stone wall. She felt some bitter metal gripping her wrists then suddenly, the person let go on her hair then her body fell downwards but the metal on her wrists stopped her from falling to the ground, instead her whole body weight was being bound up by metal chains bolted into the wall. As soon as the metal chains stopped her from falling any further, Naiya screamed from it cutting into her wrists and almost pulling her arm out of its socket from the sudden stop. Naiya cried once the pain began to numb then she heard door hinges squeak as a cell door slammed shut not far from where she was hanging.

End of Flash back

Naiya screamed and tried to swing her body out of Sakon's and Kimimaro's hold but they had a firm grip on her arms but not enough to hurt her too much. Naiya's throat soon got soar from hopelessly shouting the short time that she had been dragged. As she got towed deeper into Orochimaru's hideout, heads of other prisoners and test subjects turned towards the source of the scream. Screams were often heard in Orochimaru's hideout because of his cruelty towards humans. He used them for test subjects mostly and the odd one would become his new vessel that he would absorb in order to add more years to his life span. Every three years he would have to absorb someone new in order to preserve his life. Sakon and Kimimaro hauled Naiya past all of Orochimaru's prisoners and brought her into a wing of her own. In the farthest room there was a lone cell waiting for occupancy from Naiya. Once they reached the room, Naiya screamed even louder once she had seen the cell and realized that she was going in there. She had never seen a cell before but she could see it because of its feel and knew it all too well. She was dropped inside the chamber and heard the same squeak and slam of the door then Sakon and Kimimaro laughed as they exited the larger room. It was almost pitch black with no natural light source. The only pleasant sound that could be heard inside this room was water dripping from the leaking ceiling onto the stone floor. Puddles were everywhere on the ground from the poor structure of the roof and the chill in the room caused Naiya's body to shiver. Naiya was on her knees and put her arms and face on the floor and cried as she could hear screams of other people from the opposite wing of the hideout. Some screams sounded as if a person had just died and every time that someone screamed, spiders fell from their webs and crawled across the ground startled from the sudden burst of sound. Naiya lifted her head and held onto the steel bars that held the cage together as tight as she could then she rested her forehead on a cross bar and cried from being terrified for her life... again. Her heart walloped against her rib cage hurting her heart every time that it got struck against her chest as it has in the past from fright. The slightest sound made her turn her head towards the source but she could not comprehend what the cause of the sound was since the room was nearly pitch black and she knew that it was not safe here. She rested her cheek on a bar still holding onto the rounded steel bars and continued to cry but silently while her oesophagus shook in the back of her dried mouth.

"D—Deidei?"

"D*** it, nobody's here, un." Deidara said slamming the door to one of Orochimaru's abandoned hideouts that he was falsely lead to. Orochimaru moved hideouts often to avoid being caught by people that were after him and Deidara had already visited three abandoned bases and was beginning to be affected by dehydration. He stumbled back to his bird and tried to climb on it but his body was weak. It had been 35 hours since he had slept, eaten or even drank. He didn't care about his being all he wanted to do was find Naiya and if he stopped, that would slim his chances of seeing her alive but on the contrary, if Deidara was at Orochimaru's base and Naiya was still alive, he could be of no help to save her because he would most likely collapse from exhaustion. His best chances were to rejuvenate himself so that he could at least beat Orochimaru for what he has done and get revenge so Deidara set off in search of a stream, there he could find food and water so that he could tackle two needs at once. When he found a water source, he knelt down at the water's edge and scooped up handfuls of water and sucked it into his mouth. When he looked up he seen fish swimming near him and he harpooned it with a kunai and ninja wire then brought it back to him. He lit a fire and sat by it to cook the fish. As he was waiting for the fish to cook, he looked up at the stars and sighed. "Naiya..." He whispered to himself. He closed his eyes as the wind began to pick up and it blew a small tear across his cheek.

"Zetsu status report." Pein ordered with a group of his men at one of Orochimaru's abandoned outpost. Zetsu shook his holographic head.

"Nothing here, just another mislead." Zetsu's black side said.

"Yes but there are signs of Deidara being here. Explosion marks are everywhere. He really destroyed the place." His white side said back.

"Well we don't want to find Deidara just yet, we want to find Orochimaru." Zetsu's black side argued.

"Yes but if we run into Deidara, he could tell us which places he has been to eliminating our possibilities of being at another empty facility."

"Shut up you two." Pein shouted at the bickering halves. "This base has been abandoned too. Tell Kisame and Itachi to reunite with my group then we shall continue onwards. We will meet each other at coordinates Q-46 and stop there for camp out."

"Yes leader-sama." Zetsu said in unison with himself before vanishing. Pein turned around back to Tobi, Kakuzu and Hidan.

"How are we doing here?" Pein asked.

"Just another sh** loaded place." Hidan said with Kakuzu kneeling down behind him to get a hold of a rock on the ground then dropped it back down.

"Oh wait a minute!" Tobi said excitedly then he ran across the rubble leaping over large obstacles and stopped at a broken down wall. He pressed the side of his masked head to it and listened to his hands rubbing against a large hole in the wall. Pein, Kakuzu and Hidan walked over to Tobi thinking that they got another lead. Tobi caressed the wall with his head pressed lovingly against it and smiled. "Sempai." He said in a sweet tone knowing that his sempai had been at this location. Everyone else did the anime fall behind Tobi but he kept his head on the wall.

"Tobi you idiot." Hidan shouted making a fist.

Three days past as Naiya was still held captive in the same jail cell. They haven't done much to her yet, they at least tried to keep her alive by feeding her but she didn't eat too much. She was sick to her stomach of fear. Naiya remained in the corner of her cell while holding her knees up to her chest and her head was buried in her thighs. It was unusually quiet for this time of day, it seems that no one was being tortured but through all of the silence, Naiya heard footsteps coming towards her chamber and she lifted her head and looked towards the door with red in the corners of her eyes. A man with glasses and a low silver ponytail opened up the door and smirked. Sakon and Kimimaro stood behind him then stepped in front of him and opened up the cellar door. Naiya squeezed into the corner as they slowly came towards her then they grabbed her by the arms again and picked her up.

"Uhh! Uhh!" Naiya whined as she was taken away. Kabuto, the one in the rounded glasses, looked back and laughed. They dragged her through the hallway of the wing that she was in and emotionless florescent lights dimly lit the hallway then she was brought into a room with a single computer but attached to it was many screens and many more devices were in this area. Sakon and Kimimaro put Naiya on top of a table and strapped her arms and legs down so that she couldn't move then. Naiya tried to wiggle her arms and ankles out of the metals grasp that kept her to the table. Sakon and Kimimaro left the room but Kabuto remained and soon Orochimaru came in with another dark haired boy who looked a lot like Itachi, Orochimaru walked over but stopped so that he was right above Naiya. Orochimaru picked up his white hand and placed on Naiya's frightened cheek and stroked it gently.

"This is the girl, Sasuke." Orochimaru said and clearly he was speaking to the dark haired boy.

"This is the Jinchuriki." Sasuke said in almost a questioned tone.

"Yes, she is the Jinchuriki of the hidden snow village who was constantly tortured by the villagers because they feared her though she had done nothing wrong. She couldn't die because her Jinchuriki always stepped in to save her life." Kabuto informed. "She was locked up in a room after the villagers realized that she was indestructible and stayed there for most of her life. She never learned how to talk, read or write because there was no one there to teach her. She still can't talk but she can shout scream and cry because the vocal strings used to talk are different sized than the ones used to scream and cry. Her talking vocal chords are under developed making it very hard for her to talk." Kabuto walked over to the computer and pushed a button to make the table stand vertically to the ground. Naiya kept on eyeing Sasuke who was staring back at her. He was the only one here that did not have evil eyes, the look in his onyx eyes almost looked compassionate compared to everyone else's eyes that she had seen since she got here but he had a glimmer of vengeance that never faded. Her vision of Sasuke was distracted as Kabuto attached some wires into her body on her bare chest as well as a heart monitor. She was still only in her bra and underwear since she was taken without any clothes before she was about to enjoy a bath that Deidara had made for her. She cringed from the slight pain that the needles made and at once, blood began vacuuming out of her body through a fairly large machine then flowed back into her legs. Naiya whined again failing to free herself then an oxygen mask was forcefully strapped onto her face and it pumped pure oxygen along with laughing gas to make her calm down but it didn't work.

"She obviously can't fight since she had been locked up." Sasuke said.

"Yes but her chakra cells have been activated, that must have happened because of the three tailed snow tiger inside of her." Kabuto acknowledged. Orochimaru smirked then walked out of the room. Sasuke stood and watched Naiya's shortness of breath. Kabuto sighed. "Yep she definitely is the Jinchuriki." He said looking at her stats on the computer, Naiya had more than two times more chakra then regular humans because of the beast sealed inside of her.

"What does Orochimaru plan on doing to her?" Sasuke asked emotionlessly.

"Lord Orochimaru gave specific orders to monitor her and test out her strength, once we have all the necessary information on her then that will determine what is to be done with her. Most likely she will be a new vessel for Lord Orochimaru. He is the only one that can absorb one with a Jinchuriki. Either way she is going to die in a week." Kabuto smirked. Naiya gasped through an oxygen mask that she was wearing when she heard this. She wrenched at her arms and legs and desperately tried to escape, it was confirmed that she wouldn't be able to see Deidara again. Kabuto soon got annoyed at Naiya's movements, her information wouldn't register on the computer so he walked up to her and electrocuted her with a jutsu that zapped her of her energy. Naturally she screamed from the pain and couldn't move her body anymore. Tears rolled down her cheek as she realized that she could never see Deidara anymore. She looked up at Sasuke with pain shooting through her eyes then closed them. The kiss that she wanted to lay on Deidara's lips was to never come once she was dead.

"Hurry up everyone." Pein commanded his large squad losing his patience. They had found more abandonments as the days went on and every moment that Naiya was gone was a threat to the Akatsuki's main mission and they needed Naiya's Jinchuriki in order to complete their task. Pein wiped the sweat off of his brow. "Alright everyone move out, there's clearly nothing here." Pein stood as everyone walked past him to move out but Itachi stopped right beside him.

"You have that look in your eye." Itachi began in a low voice so that no one could hear them. "He's nearing his three year mark."

"Yeah, I fear that he captured Naiya so that she could be his next vessel. If that's the case then we have just under a week to get her back."

"I see. Does Deidara know of this?"

"I can't say for sure but let's just keep this between the two of us so that we stay as focused as possible. I don't want anything to distract us, mainly Tobi. He's the one that could really slow us down."

"Sure." Was all Itachi said then everyone headed out for their next suspected hideout.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N: This chapter contains sensitive material for some people. Blood and torture awaits.**

Naiya was still laying horizontal to the floor and was sleeping without anyone in the room. She was still hooked up to the heart monitor and other machines that read her physical status and blood type. She breathed in the pure oxygen heavily and exhaled just as deeply with weighty equipment resting on her rising and falling chest. She was asleep and dreaming that she was back with Deidara and oddly, she felt happy and at peace for she thought that this was real and her reality was the dream. The door to the room squeaked open, Naiya flinched once the dim florescent lights from the hallway fell onto her closed eyes then she opened them and turned her head over to find two blurs that eventually made out to be Orochimaru's henchmen and Kabuto coming towards her. Naiya immediately snapped out of her dazed feeling once she seen the face of Kabuto and remembered Orochimaru. Kabuto removed all of the equipment off of Naiya. Was she being released? But soon her the question was answered; the other two men picked her up violently and carried her to another dark room. Suddenly Naiya found herself being thrown off of a balcony and fell one story and landed on her side. In pain and terrified, Naiya looked up at the balcony that she had been thrown from and seen Orochimaru standing in the light with Kabuto and Sasuke positioned beside him. Everything around Naiya was dark, she couldn't see any walls or a ceiling for that matter, the only thing that she could see was the devilish smirk on Orochimaru's wicked face. This was a different, this was no torture that Naiya had endured in her lifetime. What was Orochimaru planning on doing with her? Another light turned on revealing a gate behind that was slowly opening and 50 male prisoners wielding various weapons walked out and stood in five rows of ten behind Naiya and awaited instructions from Orochimaru. Each prisoner had a lifeless look in their eyes and looked as if they had been badly abused or beaten, they all had many scars and burns to show off, some were even missing limbs or even facial features because of Orochimaru's doing.

"Welcome to the once in a lifetime opportunity." Orochimaru's smirk turned into a smile. "I am releasing only one of you and only one but before I do that, you have to prove yourself first and the task is tricky. The one who kills the girl in front of you will be granted the freedom to leave if you so please." Naiya lowered her head to the floor and squeezed her eyes shut as the prisoners raised their weapons.

"Kill her? I thought that Orochimaru was going to use her as a vessel." Sasuke said not showing his confusion through his tone.

"Just you watch." Kabuto said confidently.

"Begin."

Naiya whined as the heard of men sprinted towards her, each one had the same expression on their face and were determined to kill Naiya so that they could get out of this lair. She screamed as an icy cold arrow pierced her in the back then a barrage of swords slashed her way cutting her skin into lined patterns, blood trickled down each cut. Orochimaru laughed at the cold blooded violence. One threw ninja wire at her and it wrapped around her neck beginning to choke her. A man lifted her up with the wire, Naiya held onto the wire to try to free her neck, a few threw senbon and kunai at her and it stuck into her flesh. Her vision began to fade as air left her lungs and failed to enter back in, her torso grew hot then cold rapidly as her body panicked for oxygen. She suddenly dropped to the ground because the man that held her up with the wire got attacked by another man who had nothing to throw, her vision restored as she gasped for breath but only in time to be hit with a mace in the chest. She stopped screaming from pain only to shout. Orochimaru's sick smile faded as he carefully listened to what Naiya was crying.

"Deidei! Deidei!" She kept on yelling out Deidara's name while being whipped and beaten hoping that she could see him one last time before she died. "Deidei!" She squeezed her eyes shut as she could feel her Jinchuriki trying to take over her body to save herself but she tried to force it back. Last time she used her Jinchuriki, she killed innocent people and she didn't want to lose control. When she opened her eyes back up, she was somewhere different. She heard something panting in front of her, the sound of it chilled her blood coated skin. She noticed humongous cage doors before her with a small paper seal preventing the doors to be opened and behind the doors was a large beast, it started to laugh.

"Why do you not use me Naiya? I can save your life." The beast said. It's tail moved up into the air and swayed from side to side then two more tails joined it. The room temperature began to drop. Naiya couldn't do anything but stare at the beastly three tailed snow tiger. Saliva dropped from its mouth onto the floor and froze once it hit the ground. "What are you waiting for, release me." Naiya shook her head and realized what this thing was. "I will lend you a portion of my power so you can take down these individuals then you can repay me by releasing me." Naiya shook her head again becoming afraid as the demon rose its voice. "You`d rather die?" Naiya looked down at the floor and did not respond. "You do realize that if you don't use me, you'll die?" A tear drop fell from Naiya's cheek.

"I—can't." Naiya struggled to say. The snow tiger growled at her.

"I can help you. If you use me then I will allow you to see Deidara again." Naiya gasped while quickly raising her head from her hands. "I know how much you miss him." The three tailed snow tiger smiled widely at Naiya's reaction. Naiya stood up and took a few steps towards the gates and the demon laughed. Naiya reached up her arms to the gate then she returned back to her pool of blood in Orochimaru's hideout. Her eyes turned blood thirsty as chakra began to wildly flow from her body and it traced the three tailed beast around her body.

"That's better." Orochimaru's smile returned to his face. Sasuke shifted eyes from Orochimaru back to Naiya. Her possessed body easily took down the men after her. Her nails grew sharp enough so that she could use her hand to rip through the men's body then she tore through the rest of the bodies. Kabuto and Orochimaru laughed in unison. Naiya had no jutsu of her own to perform so the only thing that she could use to defend herself was taijutsu. A few of these men that she took down had an acceptable level in their ninja skills but Naiya moved so swiftly that no one had any time to react, mean while others in the distance threw kunai and shot arrows at her missing her by metres because she was far too fast for anyone to predict where she would be. Once all of the men had collapsed on the floor, Naiya stopped and violently turned to face Orochimaru and looked at him with blood thirsty eyes then she dashed towards him, she jumped up to the ledge to attack him but just before she could put her foot on the railing, Kabuto took out a bow and an arrow with a rope attached to it and shot her in the chest knocking her back down seven metres to the ground. She tried to move but her body was in shock from the arrow hitting her so close to the heart. She groaned and squeezed her eyes shut as the pain continuously shot through her body from all the contact and abuse that she had just endured, she collapsed on the ground from the pain and lost a lot of energy but Kabuto gave her a wakeup call when he tugged on the rope pulling the arrow and her along with it. She screamed from the unbearable pain and held onto the arrow with her bloody hands. Kabuto tugged at the rope to bring Naiya closer and with every tug game another blood curdling scream. Naiya continued to hold onto the arrow to dim the pain somewhat. Eventually she was right below the ledge that Orochimaru stood on and Kabuto pulled as hard as he could onto the rope to bring Naiya up without having to go get her. As Naiya was being pulled up, her whole body weight was being stressed on her chest where the arrow was, the arrow would not come out of her, she screamed and eventually passed out from the pain once she had been pulled over the railing. Orochimaru laughed at the bloody girl knowing that he had made his right pick.

"So this was just another test." Sasuke realized.

"Yup, that's another test that's out of our way." Kabuto said throwing Naiya's unconscious body over his shoulder. "She is a powerful Jinchuriki."

"Precisely, this girl really is something special isn't she? Now Kabuto, I think that we should make our little friend here more comfortable. Don't want her to die from blood loss now do we." Orochimaru said.

"Yes Lord Orochimaru." Kabuto bowed then brought Naiya back to the medical room and hooked her back up and even put a life support system on her, once he was all done hooking her up, Kabuto left the room.

An hour after Naiya had killed the 50 prisoners, her wounds were slowly healing themselves as she still rested on the table. She opened her eyes to regain consciousness and found herself strapped onto the table again with wires, and brain and heart monitors attached to her, there was even an oxygen mask liberating pure oxygen overtop of her mouth and nose. She coughed out blood into the oxygen tube and Kabuto turned around.

"Ah, you're awake now are you? You sure put up a good fight in there and your wounds are healing rather quickly. You really know how to make Lord Orochimaru happy. Looks like you're going to be the next vessel for Lord Orochimaru. We will begin this operation in two days of transporting Lord Orochimaru into your body. We left it kind of late but that's only because we couldn't capture you until it was late and we needed to run a series of tests on you to make sure you are what we are looking for." Kabuto went on but Naiya couldn't understand much, she just knew that she was going to die before she could see Deidara again. She missed every part of him, his laugh, his smile and his personality. She realized that she couldn't live without him, it hurt her too much inside to be away from him. She imagined herself reaching out to him and embracing him but it wasn't as good as really holding him in her arms. Every moment that she was apart from him, she suffered the worst torture possible. Physical pain is nothing compared to this emotional pain that she was feeling. As she squeezed her eyes shut, a tear ran down her cheek as she was thinking of him.


	29. Chapter 29

Orochimaru sat on his throne in a dark room dimly lit by candles, contemplating over Naiya and laughed madly. He had never been so confident about this vessel, it was his first Jinchuriki that he would absorb and he was beginning to get giddy over his new powers that he would be able to use and his strength would be overwhelming, he could knock down anyone in his path. His mad laughter could be heard down the halls and around corners and prisoners cringed in their cells once they heard what was going on, Orochimaru's laughter was almost as deafening as the screams that constantly went on. Kabuto was in the same room as Orochimaru and he smirked as he mixed potions together. Wax dripped down from the wall mounted candles onto the floor and hardened.

"You've been in a good mood lately." Kabuto said.

"Haha, I haven't been this happy since Sasuke found his way here more than two and a half years ago. She is such a fascinating girl isn't she?" Orochimaru asked knowing what Kabuto would say.

"Yes she is amazing, she is no ordinary girl that's for sure." Kabuto replied sucking up the potion that he had just mixed up into a needle and Orochimaru laughed again.

"Is everything ready?"

"Everything is set." Kabuto said lifting the needle to meet Orochimaru's snakeish eyes and he laughed again.

"It is time." Orochimaru said squinting his eyes. Kabuto nodded then walked out of the room, Orochimaru's smirk turned into a smile.

Naiya opened her eyes when she heard someone coming and looked over to the door, she seen the shadow of a person in the crack underneath the closed door and knew that someone had to be coming for her. Her teeth automatically grinded together and her eyebrows flew upwards as the door opened to see Kabuto's smirking face and tears began to stream down her cheeks. She began struggling to get out once she seen him hold up a needle.

"No! No! Deidei!" She screamed just as the needle was being jabbed into her right upper arm.

"Don't worry, this won't take long." Kabuto said pulling the needle out of her pale skin. Seconds later, Naiya's body went limp and she couldn't move her arms or legs, she was conscious but her body was in the state of a vegetable. Kabuto began to unwire her from the monitors. There were monitors to measure her heart and her brain and there were even monitors to check her glucose level in her blood and her oxygen intake, you name the medical machine, Kabuto had to unhook it from her. He threw Naiya over his shoulders and carried her away into a large room where Orochimaru stood waiting. Kabuto placed Naiya down in the center of a sealing circle. Orochimaru faced away from Naiya hiding his smile behind his long black hair then he abruptly turned around and licked his lips with his long tongue.

"I`ve been looking forward to this day for a long time." Orochimaru laughed as he slowly began to walk towards Naiya. Naiya trembled still unable to move her body and she shook even more once Orochimaru placed his icy cold hands on her bare shoulders then he forced her up. Naiya couldn't help but look into Orochimaru's demonic eyes as he licked his lips once more. He lowered his head down to Naiya's level and as he moved his face closer towards hers, Naiya squeezed her eyes shut with a final tear rolling down.

"Good bye, Deidara." Naiya said to herself while squeezing her eyes shut just as Orochimaru was centimetres from her face. Naiya waited for her death but nothing was happening, she opened her eyes to find that Orochimaru's sights were on something else. An explosion went off as Deidara flew in through the sky light hole that he had created on one of his clay birds. Naiya's facial expression instantly changed when she had finally seen him after weeks of separation. Full of excitement and satisfaction, she tried to call out his name but she choked on the words and nothing came out, not even a squeak.

"Get your d*** hands off of her, un." Deidara shouted.

"My my, what a surprise. If it isn't an Akatsuki member, and not just any Akatsuki member, the one that took my replacement after I had left the organization." Orochimaru said smiling then he let go of Naiya and she dropped to the floor still unable to move her arms and legs. Deidara cringed when he heard the thump of her body hitting the stone floor.

"I'll kill you for taking her away from me and causing her pain." Deidara said throwing his hands to his sides then into his clay pouch after that he pulled out two clay birds and threw them at Orochimaru. Orochimaru dodged them but failed to dodge their explosive power. Deidara laughed once the smoke began to clear but once it was completely gone, he noticed that Orochimaru wasn't there. Being quick to notice things, Deidara quickly noticed a shadow flying towards him on his bird and easily evaded an attack. Orochimaru landed on the floor then turned around to Deidara. "Oh good, you're still alive. I was rather disappointed that you could have been beat so easily. Now I have a chance to teach you a lesson with my art, hm."

"Oh don't you worry, there's lots more where that came from. I get rather disappointed myself if a battle goes on too quickly, so I prefer to kill my opponents slowly and painfully and I like to play with my opponents before devouring on their soul." He said licking his smiling lips with his snake-like tongue.

"Is that so, un?" Deidara threw more of his clay birds that he sculpted himself but Orochimaru quickly evaded them and the explosions itself and landed on the ground elsewhere safely outside of the C4 blasting range.

"Summoning jutsu!" Orochimaru said after making a few hand signs and then he slammed his hand on the ground. Smoke rose from the spot where Orochimaru had his hand and a huge beast arose from the dust. Deidara stopped in his tracks and looked up. A giant snake, Manda had appeared slightly shorter than the size of the room that they were battling in. Manda was Orochimaru's favourite beast to summon in battle.

"What?" Deidara questioned with his head cocked upwards staring at the snake that was towering over him and his bird that was in flight, Orochimaru naturally laughed as the heat of battle was finally coming into play.


	30. Chapter 30

"Manda, I am in need of your assistance." Orochimaru commanded and the snake turned to stare at Deidara straight into his eyes. Deidara was slightly shaken by the size but then a smirk came upon his face knowing that this would be a great new experiment for his art, he had developed a new jutsu while he and Naiya were in Konoha during the times that he couldn't sleep, now was the first time that he could put it to the test but before he could go straight to that jutsu, he would put on a little firework display. Deidara stuck his hands into his pouches then pulled them out and formed a different kind of bird. This bird was self guided since it had four wings all Deidara needed to do was open his palm to let them take flight on their own. The snake swiftly crawled forwards and leaped towards Deidara but he guided the bird that he was flying on out of the way not once, not twice, but three times then he opened his hands and released the four winged birds and two hit the snake in both sides of the snakes belly not doing much damage, the last one hit it on the head near the mouth then Deidara released another creation that he had been making, he made his own smaller version of Manda with the same scaly characteristics and the same kind of horns on the top of its head and then dropped it then it expanded in size to match the size of the real snake. Orochimaru compared the two snakes. "Hm, impressive, but your little figurine doesn't stand a chance against the real thing."

"Oh really, hm." Deidara said to himself as he watched the snakes go at it for a while. They both hissed at each other and attempted to take a bite out of one another but they were both quick and nimble enough to move the few metres they needed to avoid the venom in their teeth. Deidara's clay snake made a wrong move then it cost him its life. Manda began to gobble up Deidara's snake from head to the end of its tail leaving now scraps for leftovers. "No." Deidara said disappointed as he watched his art go to waste. Orochimaru laughed.

"Is that all your little snake could do, it hurts me to know that the Akatsuki is full of failures like you and they decided to put you in my place. It offends me to know that someone as powerful as me is replaced by one who shouldn't even call himself a ninja. And how could a person like you get into the Akatsuki?" Orochimaru mocked. Deidara looked down reflecting over what had just been said and started thinking of how many times that he has asked Tobi how he got into the Akatsuki and mocking him for his skills then he looked over to Naiya and his heart began to pump faster and he knew that this wasn't the time to be thinking of anything else then protecting her. Naiya tried to call out Deidara's name but nothing would come out.

"I am not a failure. I am better than you, just watch, I'm not out yet, hm. I will put my life on the line to save Naiya and not even you can stop me, yeah."

"The allow me to test that theory." Orochimaru said jumping on the snakes head then it leaped towards Deidara again but he held up his hands.

"Katsu!." Deidara shouted making the clay that Manda swallowed explode in its stomach.

"How can this be? How can I be beaten by this kid?" Orochimaru shouted as the fieriness of the explosion crept up with him and burned him and his giant snake Manda alive and out of the air. Deidara stood up still on his bird high above the ground after Orochimaru had been dissolved by the flame of the explosion.

"Yes." Deidara celebrated. Ashes fell from the high ceiling and floated down to cover the ground with a thin layer of black snow. Deidara made sure that Orochimaru was gone then he turned to Naiya and looked at her. "Naiya." He said lovingly as he smiled at her, she smiled back at him. Tears fell down from her eyes happily as Deidara began directing his bird to fly to her, she even laughed slightly waiting for him to finally hold her in his arms like she had been waiting for and it was just moments away from actually happening. Their hearts beat in unison as Deidara closed the distance between them. Suddenly, a windmill was thrown out of nowhere and hit Deidara on the back. Naiya shouted from fear however Deidara screamed from pain and fell forward but he put his hands forwards to stop him from falling off of his bird. Orochimaru rose from the back of the bird that he was hiding in from Deidara until the right moment and laughed maniacally. Blood trickled down Deidara's back from the newly opened wound and his eyes widened from the fierce pain.

"Deidei!" Naiya finally managed to shout and it was so loud that her ears bled slightly from the noise and the sound waves traveled throughout the room and bounced off of the walls and was heard by many in Orochimaru's hideout. Deidara struggled to open his eyes but he eventually managed and he looked down at her frightful face.

"Naiya, you can talk?" Deidara asked confused but he was in so much pain that he had to make a huge effort just to say her name. Then Orochimaru slowly began to pull the windmill out of his back and he screamed from pain as more blood left his body. Naiya screamed with him at the sound of his suffering and Orochimaru laughed. Still pulling the windmill out, Orochimaru grabbed Deidara by his left arm and turned him around to make him face him while still lying on the bird. He stomped on his chest once. Deidara's scream rose many decibels as the blade left his body. Naiya could move her arms so she used them to hold herself up while lying on the ground. Orochimaru grasped Deidara by the upper left arm and began to pull it away from his body trying to tear it out of its socket, he couldn't help but cry out in pain. The sound of Deidara's limbs getting torn off was very similar to when he fought Gaara, Gaara used his sand coffin to crush his arm and in order to get free, Deidara let his crushed arm be torn off. Naiya put her hands over her ears, this sound was familiar to her too when she had been in her own village, tortured, she would often get limbs severed.

"Stop, stop." Naiya whispered the first time but then her words came clear out of her lungs, up her throat and out her mouth. She could feel the tree tailed snow tiger try to take over her body as she feared for Deidara, it was the same as when she was surrounded in her home village and Deidara was trying to protect her from that man, she wanted to protect Deidara, the demon wanted to use her to kill that man and now the demon wanted to kill Orochimaru for hurting Deidara. Deidara, still having his arm torn, noticed Naiya beginning to transform.

"Naiya." He called down to her. "Don't do that to yourself, yeah." Naiya stopped and listened to what Deidara was telling her.

"Huh?" She said.

"Don't use your Jinchuriki, that's what Orochimaru is after and if you use it, he could just take it away from you, un." Deidara said but Orochimaru laughed knowing that he needed to shut Deidara up so he punched him on the jaw. Deidara shouted again and Naiya tensed up still half transforming. "I don't want to lose you again Naiya. Don't transform, I will take care of you." Orochimaru punched Deidara again and he quickly recuperated so that he could talk to Naiya again. "Promise me that you won't use the three tailed snow tiger, promise me Naiya." Naiya quaked in fear but managed and nodded her head as she began to draw back the demon. Orochimaru punched Deidara once again then Deidara released the bird that was holding them up and managed to get himself and Orochimaru off of his bird. Deidara fell to the ground but Orochimaru managed to land on his feet over by Naiya. Deidara stood up once he gained enough strength, his left arm dangled down as he was unable to move it since his bone got pulled out of its socket, now his whole arm was useless. Orochimaru made a few hand signs just before touching Naiya on the top of her head with his hand. "Get away from her!" Deidara shouted as he was about to throw another exploding bird at him with his one good arm.

"I'm not so sure that you'd want to do that." Deidara gasped then stopped just before his fingers were going to open up to release his bird. Orochimaru stood and laughed.

"What have you done to her, hm?"

"Oh nothing much, I just put a jutsu on this one. Basically, if you use any of your explosives, or "art," you will be blinding the very one whom you are trying to protect. So you have to chose between your love of art, or your love for this girl." Orochimaru said looking down at Naiya as did Deidara. His eyes shook as he stared over at Orochimaru in fear, he felt as if he had already lost to him since his art was his way of fighting. He dropped his hand so that it fell at his side then he fell to his knees looking down.

"Deidei?" Naiya whimpered as Deidara's face was focused on the ground.

"You're prepared to give up your life for this girl but are you willing to give up your art." Orochimaru laughed. "Now, which will you choose?"

"Sounds like someone's fighting in there." Kabuto said to Sasuke outside of the room where Deidara and Orochimaru were fighting against one another. Light shone on Kabuto's glasses making it difficult to see his eyes behind them. He chuckled a little bit while pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose then turned to Sasuke and he stared back at him with a blank expression on his face, typical of an Uchiha. "You know what that means?"

"Right." Sasuke said with a low voice turning his head and not bothering to look back at Kabuto in the eye.

"We'll just let them go at it for a little longer then we'll do our thing." Kabuto nodded watching Deidara and Orochimaru's battle and as did Sasuke. Sasuke shifted his eyes from Deidara to Orochimaru then to Naiya. He stopped and focused his eyes at her trembling body, Sasuke slightly felt for her as she cowered in fear while watching her loved one fight for her. This reminded him of a time in his life of a similar situation where he too had once quaked in fear like that, helplessly watching people get slaughtered all around him. Sasuke's fists tightened when he thought back to those painful days when he was a child.

"Which will you choose? You're art, or your beloved?"


	31. Chapter 31

"Which will you choose? You're art, or your beloved?" Orochimaru laughed. Deidara lowered his head to the ground and squeezed his eyes shut from pain and thought. Then after a minute, he looked up and put his hands in his pouch then he began to run towards Orochimaru.

"Ha! That's an easy one, hm." He said throwing a kunai in Orochimaru's direction. Orochimaru dodged it and landed in a different spot and Deidara stopped when he was standing right in front of Naiya to protect her. "I'd easily chose Naiya any day over my art." Deidara looked back at Naiya and seen a deeply missed smile which made him smile too then he turned back to Orochimaru. Orochimaru frowned, his mind games were not working. "A ninja who only relies on only one fighting style is more likely to fail since he has nothing else to defend himself with if his one fighting style is removed."

"Yes but have you forgotten when you first became a mission on how your sensei's reminded you that a ninja must not show emotion, emotions are what weaken people. You have clearly not been listening during your ninja classes." Orochimaru mocked Deidara. "May I remind you that love is an emotion?"

"Love is an emotion, but it is what makes me stronger as a ninja, it is what makes me want to fight you to the death, it is what keeps me going every day, yeah." Deidara looked back at Naiya and remembered the first time that he had seen her. She had never experienced love until she had met Deidara. "Because I... have found love." Deidara's eyes widened as he grew sick of Orochimaru's conscious being.

"Fine then, if that's how you want to play it." Orochimaru said then he began opening his mouth and he reached down his throat and slowly pulled out a double bladed sword with snakes wrapped around each other to form the handle. He pulled it all the way out and wielded it with his right hand. Deidara watched while panting, he was clearly getting tired out more easily than Orochimaru but he would rather die than let him have Naiya.

"Hmph, he doesn't like my long range fighting style, now he is trying to draw me close enough for a close combat type of battle. It's not my strongest area but it will have to do if I am to kill him and bring Naiya back with me." Deidara frowned as he gawked at the dark glow on the swords blade. "He must have infused his sword with chakra for it to glow like that, yeah." Deidara and Orochimaru started to run for one another, Orochimaru swung his sword but Deidara managed to evade it and he took a couple punches to Orochimaru's white skin not doing a terrible amount of damage by itself. Orochimaru swung his sword many times barely nicking Deidara on the shoulder a few times. Deidara pulled out a kunai to use that as a dagger. The banging and clashing of the metal against metal was high pitched and piercing to the ears, Naiya had to cover them but that didn't stop her from closing her eyes and not watching Deidara fight for her life. Naiya was terrified every time that Deidara got hurt, she didn't want to lose him. She wanted to run in and interfere to save Deidara but she remembered that long ago when she found Deidara while he was on a mission, he made her promise that she wouldn't do that but seeing the one that she cared about most get hurt cracked her heart and shattered it into a million pieces. The emotional pain of watching him fight for her and getting hurt was much more severe than physical pain. Orochimaru managed to hit the kunai out of Deidara's hand and it landed several metres away from where they were standing then he pinned Deidara against the wan and began to choke him. The sound of him choking and gasping for breath rung through Naiya's ears and she began to cry as she called out his name numerously. Deidara raised his one good hand and tried to remove Orochimaru's icy cold forearm from his neck as he listened to the snake laughing monstrously and he swung his fist so that he punched Deidara in the stomach. Deidara cried out in pain and began to spit up blood from his bleeding stomach adding a little color to Orochimaru's pale face.

"Deidei." Naiya called, her voice squeaking from the tears that poured out of her eyes. Orochimaru's snake eyes focused on Deidara's face as he was struggling to get a breath, his movements grew more slow and clumsy as he fought to get out. Orochimaru took this opportunity to make a few hand signs with his one free hand and instantly a clone appeared behind him. He swapped places with his clone giving Deidara an opportunity to slip in a breath then the real Orochimaru slowly walked towards Naiya.

"Naiya." Deidara struggled to say as he watched Naiya try to back away from the oncoming danger but her legs still weren't working properly. Orochimaru's clone punched Deidara again in the stomach then held him up with one arm. Deidara's vision began to fade as he helplessly watched Orochimaru make his way towards Naiya. His hand shook as he reached into his pocked with his one hand and pulled out a couple shurikin and he attempted to throw them but they didn't go far since his muscles haven't received enough oxygen in order to work properly. "No, I need my clay in order to save her, un." Deidara thought as he reached into his clay pouch. "But I can't use it." Orochimaru still continued to grin as Deidara's face began to go white but something wasn't right, all of Deidara was going white, even his clothes. Orochimaru gasped as Deidara began to melt down to the ground.

"A clay clone?" Orochimaru figured then he turned around to look for Deidara. Deidara managed to punch Orochimaru's cheek and he flew backwards against the wall then fell down to the ground. Deidara smirked as he wiped blood off of the corner of his mouth.

"Hmph, not all my clay is for exploding, un."

"Indeed." Orochimaru said opening one eye. "You've got a strong arm there." Deidara paid no attention to what Orochimaru had to say then his clone made a popping noise and disappeared. Deidara turned around and ran after the real Orochimaru who was standing in front of Naiya again. Orochimaru made a few hand signs. Ram, serpent, tiger; the hand signs read. "Multi-shadow clone jutsu." Orochimaru called out then all around Deidara appeared a hundred clones, not just the genjutsu types, these were solid clones. He had no time to think, all of the clones were running at him fast. Deidara started using fancy taijutsu moves that he had hardly used to fend off against the clones, one after another, the clones popped and disappeared. He got hit around a couple times but he managed to get back onto his feet and attacked the remaining clones with both of his legs and his one usable arm.

"Gah, this is a pain, hm." Deidara said while continuing to fight. The real Orochimaru stood by Naiya watching and enjoying the excellent battle that his clones were putting on. 50... 49... 48... 47 clones left, 46... 45... 44... Deidara was busy focusing on all of the clones that swarmed around him that he hadn't had the time to pay attention to the real Orochimaru.

"I think that I've had my fun, time to end this." Orochimaru said quietly so that only him and Naiya could hear. He chuckled softly while looking back at her, grinning devilishly and imagined his feast of the Jinchuriki she possessed. While Deidara was minimizing the amount of clones that were swarmed around him, Orochimaru made a few hand signs and took out a giant windmill of shadows that appeared right in front of him he and threw it in Deidara's direction. As it flew towards him, it knocked down all the clones that were in its way until it hit Deidara on his upper left arm and hooked him against a wall behind him. Deidara and Naiya both screamed. Orochimaru had two of his clones stand by him to make sure that Deidara wouldn't get off of the wall so they held him against it. Blood poured down Deidara's newly created wound and his temperature began to change from blood loss. The real Orochimaru turned to Naiya and picked her up by the shoulders making her squeal. Naiya couldn't help but look at his demonic smirking eyes.

"Get away from her." Deidara shouted and a clone punched him in the stomach. Orochimaru paid no attention to Deidara, he opened up his white mouth and licked his lips with his snake like tongue then he licked the bottom of Naiya's lips. Deidara tried to shout at Orochimaru but he had been winded when taking a punch to the gut. He reached into his clay pouch. "D*** it, I don't have enough clay. I used most of it in my clay clone jutsu. It's gonna take a miracle to save her, hm." Deidara thought while frowning. Naiya shook and Orochimaru shoved his long tongue into her mouth and down her throat partially in her oesophagus choking her of breath and he began to suck her of her Jinchuriki. "Naiya!" Naiya gagged and squealed as she tried to get away but she was being drained of all her energy and chakra. She began to lose all feeling in her toes then it crept up her legs. Deidara was almost completely zapped of his energy too so he couldn't jump over to save her. Orochimaru laughed wildly as he pulled the Jinchuriki out of her soul slowly killing her in the process.


	32. Chapter 32

Orochimaru was sucking Naiya lifeless as he was transferring her Jinchuriki's power into his own body. Deidara was held against a wall with a windmill of shadows pinning him there as well as a couple shadow clones not to mention that he didn't have enough clay to do anything, he felt completely helpless. Orochimaru laughed wildly as he pulled the Jinchuriki out of Naiya's body while looking into her pained eyes. Naiya had lost all feeling in her feet and the loss of feeling began to crawl up her hips and slowly up her torso. Suddenly Orochimaru was forced to pull his tongue away then he jumped back making Naiya fall to the ground. Something had cut him. Deidara turned around and seen every one of the Akatsuki members there, except Tobi and Zetsu, they were outside taking care of Orochimaru's guards. Hidan had used his scythe skilfully to separate Orochimaru from Naiya and he pulled it back to him using a rope that was tied onto the end of it then rested it on his shoulder. Orochimaru also turned around to see the group of people that he had recognized. Pein scowled at Orochimaru with a lust for his blood. Orochimaru was a former member of the Akatsuki and he was a threat to their existence since he knew so much of their information and where their base was, it was dangerous leaving him alive knowing this information. Kakuzu used his tentacles to reach over to Naiya and he gently brought her over behind the wall of Akatsuki members.

"We'll be taking her and Deidara back." Pein said.

"Well if it isn't my former leader-sama, Pein and the rest of the Akatsuki organization." Orochimaru said he looked from one Akatsuki member to the other until he got to Sasori. "Ah and if it isn't my old partner Sasori." Sasori just stared at Orochimaru with no emotion showing but deep down, he wanted to kill him for causing Deidara so much suffering on the removal of Naiya. He couldn't stand seeing his friend go through that. Instead, Sasori threw his scorpion tail at Orochimaru not really trying to hit him but it was easily evaded. Orochimaru made multiple shadow clones of himself and as did Itachi and they both fought each other off until it was just the real ones left. Itachi used his fire ball jutsu to clear most of them. "Now will be the time that I take Itachi's body as my vessel." Orochimaru said thinking back to the time when he failed to do so in the past. Itachi closed his eyes then he opened them revealing his mangekyou sharringan, Orochimaru fell into its trap once he looked at him in the eye. Itachi began his feared 72 hours of torture. Orochimaru was secured on a wooden cross in another dimension and the image of him and Itachi standing in front of them multiplied so that there appeared to be one hundred of them.

"Seventy-two hours of torture begins now." Itachi said just before he stabbed Orochimaru in the stomach with a katana. "Seventy-one hours fifty-nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds to go." Then Itachi stabbed him again. Naturally, Orochimaru screamed from the pain of the katana entering and exiting his body, Orochimaru was very familiar with this jutsu that was being used on him when he fought Itachi in the past and it was clear to him that Itachi has not lost his touch, in fact, Itachi was much stronger now than when Orochimaru first fought him because of excessive training. "Seventy-nine hours fifty-nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds left." Itachi counted down the most slow and painful torture. While Itachi and Orochimaru were in the mangekyou dimension, Sasori and Kisame took this opportunity to take out Orochimaru's clones then they were at the aid of Deidara. Sasori kneeled down beside him to help him take the shurikin out of his arm.

"Gah, thanks guys." Deidara said as he squeezed one eye shut from the pain then he began to pull the giant shurikin out of his arm. He shouted from the pain and once it was out, Naiya ran over to his side and kneeled down in front of him. A few tears went down her cheeks, it was a combination of happiness and sadness. "Naiya." Deidara said happily. Deidara was covered in blood and bruises from his battle with Orochimaru, it hurt Naiya to see him so beaten up but he did it for her. "Naiya I missed you so much, un." Deidara said as Naiya jumped into his arms to give him a hug. He wrapped his one good arm around her and stroked her hair. Naiya clutched onto his cloak remembering how the best times in her life were her being held in Deidara's arms, she had missed that the most since she had been taken away. The other members of the Akatsuki walked over to the hugging couple and Pein took a few more steps towards them to stand out from the men behind him. Naiya pulled away and they both looked up to Pein.

"Good work Deidara." Pein said. Deidara nodded knowing that Pein was thanking him for securing Naiya's Jinchuriki but Deidara didn't do it for the Jinchuriki, he did it for his own reasons, so that he could be with Naiya again.

"Hehe, looks like you will be needing medical attention when you get back." Kisame laughed. Hidan laughed too.

"Yeah, you're a bloody mess." Hidan commented too in a slightly mocking tone but that was his way of saying welcome back. Deidara decided not to take it hardly he was too happy to be back with Naiya then to get mad at anyone for saying something stupid. At least Tobi wasn't here because he could change Deidara's mood rather quickly. Deidara winced from pain a sharp pain that shot through his body, mostly his stomach.

"Look if you want me to fix you up, it will cost you a small fee of 100 ryo." Kakuzu said and everyone laughed. "I'm serious."

"That's not necessary, un. I think most of it just has to heal on its own, hm." Deidara said not showing how much pain he was really in, he didn't want to look weak in front of everyone, especially Naiya.

"Don't be so naive, you need to get that arm taken care of or else it will never heal properly." Sasori said harshly but he was just looking after Deidara like an older brother would look after their younger siblings.

"Well he could leave his arm hanging like that for all I care, then that's one less arm that he could use to make his explosives and then we won't have to worry about him attacking us with them as much." Hidan said and everyone laughed except Deidara. He was distracted by a severe pain that suddenly came and lurked in his stomach, it wasn't bad at first but eventually he silently shut his eyes from the pain. While everyone was laughing and talking, Deidara was in his own world of pain, everyone's voices started to go all fuzzy and he couldn't make out what anyone was saying anymore. His face was being flushed with whiteness as the blood began to flow away from his head making his face white. He groaned as his body cringed tightly from the brutal pain shot through his body and everyone turned around to notice that he wasn't doing well. Naiya whined in fear for Deidara.

"What's wrong Deidara?" Sasori asked but Deidara did not answer instead he pulled an arm up and put it over his stomach and applied pressure to try to ease the pain but in only amplified it. Soon the pain was unbearable that he let out a scream and fell onto his side. Blood spilt out of his mouth from the corners of his lips. Everyone's hearts began to race and they all gasped in unison when Deidara fell down.

"Deidara!" Most of them called out in worry. Still screaming, Deidara's vision began to fade and his hearing started to disappear. Eventually he slipped into darkness and lied insentient on the cold floor silenced by his reversed slumber. Pein immediately kneeled down by him and lifted his shirt until it was just above Deidara's belly.

"He's got internal bleeding." Peins voice rose in concern. "He must have experienced a hard hit to the gut in order to have done that much damage. This is in the worst possible spot for internal bleeding. It's life threatening and he could go either way at this point and on top of that, he's lost too much blood. We need to get those wounds closed up if we have a chance to save him." Naiya put her hands over her mouth when Pein said the words "life threatening" and instantly tears poured out of her eyes and her heart began to race in her rib cage. She tried to call out his name but she was muted by her tears.

Behind where everyone was standing, a loud scream was heard throughout the lair, Itachi and Orochimaru had just come out of the mangekyou dimension, Orochimaru fell to his knees and panted heavily, pain flowing throughout his body. Kisame and Sasori jumped over to take care of Orochimaru, Sasori shot poisonous kunai at him and Kisame launched his water style water shark jutsu. Kisame spat water out of his mouth in order to create any useful water.

"Water style, water shark jutsu." Kisame shouted after making the required hand signs.

"Itachi." Pein called out and Itachi turned around to look at him. "I want you and Kakuzu to take Deidara back to the hideout and treat his wounds as soon as possible. He is suffering from internal bleeding." Pein explained to the situation. "Naiya will stay with us. It is best if she doesn't go with Deidara, she may only be in the way of Kakuzu trying to heal him."

"Got it." Itachi nodded before jumping over to Deidara then he picked up his body and him and Kakuzu jumped out the opening that Deidara had created earlier from an explosion and they headed off to the Akatsuki base as fast as they could. Pein and Hidan stood in front of Naiya to protect her while Sasori and Kisame faced off against Orochimaru to finish what Deidara had started. Naiya noticed out of the corner of her eye a door was cracking open and she could barely make out who was behind it. In the darkness of the half opened door stood Kabuto and Sasuke watching in on Orochimaru's battle. They clearly had no interest in helping Orochimaru because if they did, they would have jumped in by now. What were they doing behind those doors and why weren't they interfering in on Orochimaru's battle to offer him aid? Sasuke looked around and noticed that Itachi, his older brother, wasn't there. Sasuke knew that Itachi had joined the Akatsuki many years ago and he was always trying to hunt him down.

"Die!" Kisame shouted as him and Sasori launched a barrage of attacks against their foe. Orochimaru was starting to look beaten up from his long fight while Kisame and Sasori have hardly been touched since they got there.

"What's wrong Orochimaru? You're starting to look tired." Sasori mocked and Orochimaru frowned and just launched a veil of attacks. As Naiya shook in the background, the feeling was starting to return to her legs and she had the strength to stand up but she was wobbly and had to put her hand against the wall for support. Hidan heard Naiya panting as she tried to get up so he turned around to face her.

"Hey take it easy there Naiya." Hidan said rushing over to help Naiya hold herself up. Somehow, Orochimaru got Sasori and Kisame in a situation where he could strike and win the battle. Before Orochimaru could strike, Sasuke used a jutsu that he had learned from him that extracted snakes from his arm and he used then to hold Orochimaru in place. Orochimaru struggled to turn his head to see who it was who stopped him.

"Sasuke you traitor." Orochimaru hissed.

"Go on, get out of here. I'll take it from here." Sasuke said calmly not looking at anyone but Orochimaru.

"Hey, we were here first! What makes you think that you could beat this guy?" Hidan complained, not knowing that this is Itachi's brother, while holding Naiya up with her arm around his neck. Sasuke looked over at him with cold eyes.

"Never mind that Hidan, we need to get back to Deidara and bring Naiya back with us." Pein enforced. "Sasori, Kisame, lets head out."

"Yes leader-sama." They both said as one then they jumped out of the hole in the wall that Deidara had created a while ago that left Pein, Hidan and Naiya in the room. Pein made a few hand signs and preformed some sort of jutsu so that he could know what was going on in the battle with Sasuke and Orochimaru when he wasn't there to know if he had been killed.

"All right. We're off then." Pein said and Hidan jumped out of the room with Naiya holding on to him. Pein jumped onto the wall and looked back at Orochimaru.

"S-Sasuke, how could you have-." Orochimaru was cut off from Sasuke attacking him with his chidori. It seems that he is serious about fighting Orochimaru. Orochimaru screamed from the contact of the lightning to his flesh. Sasuke went into his curse marked second form for more power. Pein turned around and jumped off the wall and returned to the group of people who were waiting on a hill for him.

"Leader-sama! Leader-sama!" Tobi shouted waving his arms around everywhere almost nailing Hidan in the head. "Where's Deidara sempai?"

"He should be back at the base by now." Pein started and Tobi tilted his head in confusion. "Kakuzu and Itachi had to rush him back to treat some serious wounds." Naiya lowered her head and bit her lip to try to fight back tears that were hiding under her eyes.

"Deidei." She said quietly and everyone jumped once they heard her talk.

"Wha- y-you can talk now?" Tobi asked.

"Since when?" Zetsu asked. Everyone began asking Naiya a bunch of questions but she couldn't answer them because she couldn't completely talk, not when Deidara was on her mind.

"Now's not the time everyone. Let's just hurry up and get back to the base to help Deidara out. We will talk about this later." Pein said in a low voice with a slightly concerned tone added to it. Naiya's eyes spilled out a few tears as she put a hand over her mouth and closed her eyes.

"Come on Naiya, Tobi will carry you back to Deidara sempai." Tobi said kneeling down. Naiya sadly put her arms on Tobi's shoulders and he put his arms around her legs and picked her up on his back. Naiya clutched onto Tobi's cloak once he lifted her for better grip.

"Right now let's go." Pein said.


	33. Chapter 33

"AAAAAaaaaahhhhhhh." Deidara screamed while lying on the surgery table in the Akatsuki's medical room, his eyes were wide open from the pain that shot and lingered through his stomach and it felt like a blood vessel popped every scream since he shouted so loud. Never before had he felt so much pain, not even when getting his arms torn off by Gaara and Kakashi. Kakuzu was frantically searching everywhere for the tools that he needed in order to help Deidara but Pein always had this room not put together very well so looking for tools were a chore in itself. Blood still spilt out of the corner of his mouth and at this point, Itachi was smart enough to get a bucket because without warning, he vomited into the bucket from an overload of blood being emptied into his stomach. Deidara panted as his breath started to get shorter and shorter after time.

"Where's Naiya?" He asked trying to take a breath. "Tell me that she is safe."

"She is safe, leader-sama just told us a few minutes ago that they are all on their way back." Kakuzu said pulling apart a few cabinets. Deidara sighed with relief but he started choking and coughing on blood that was coming out of his oesophagus. Kakuzu preformed a jutsu that allowed him to take a look inside of Deidara's body. Kakuzu closed his eyes and placed a hand over Deidara's body and moved it around so that he could find the source of his bleeding. "Itachi, can you check his pulse." Itachi bent down and put his index and middle finger on Deidara's neck and he closed his eyes and began to count the number of times that Deidara's heart was beating.

"119." Itachi said opening his eyes back up.

"That's far too high." Kakuzu said. "Are you panicking at all Deidara?"

"Well yeah, I haven't seen Naiya, what if Orochimaru is following them... and they don't know it. I can't be completely sure that she is safe." Deidara coughed trying to catch some breath. "I need to see her."

"Try to relax, we need to get your heart rate down so that blood isn't pumped out faster than necessary." Kakuzu informed. Suddenly Deidara screamed again from pain in his stomach through his intestines. Once that wave of pain was over, Deidara passed out again.

"His temperature is dropping." Itachi warned.

"I know, I can feel his body heat escaping." Kakuzu said still with his eyes closed examining Deidara's interiors. Kakuzu suddenly gasped. "It's as I feared, his internal organs have been severely damaged in his fight with Orochimaru. His stomach is wounded and his intestines. Let's just hope that his heart is still alright. If this goes on for too much longer, he could go into shock or suffer brain damage that could lead to death." Itachi gasped when hearing this.

"That's not good."

"He's lost too much blood which means that his body won't receive enough oxygen hence the reason that his breath is shortening and his fainting. We need leader-sama here, he's good with medical jutsu too."

Pein, Hidan, Kisame, Sasori, Zetsu and Tobi were sprinting through the trees back to the Akatsuki base to get back to Deidara. Naiya was being carried on Tobi's back and she worried the whole time that they were running. She cried and her tear drops stained Tobi's cloak without him noticing. Suddenly, Pein gasped.

"What is it leader-sama?" Kisame asked looking over to his right while they were all still jumping through the trees.

"It's Orochimaru." Pein said.

"Well what about him?" Hidan asked.

"Sasuke killed him."

"What?" Everyone gasped except Pein and Naiya.

"Itachi's brother had the power to kill him?" Kisame was the most shocked out of all of them because he knew that Itachi was stronger than his brother, since Sasuke killed Orochimaru, Kisame wondered if Sasuke had surpassed Itachi's power.

"He's got a h*** of a lot of power." Hidan commented. Sasori turned his head around when he heard someone sniffing. He noticed that Naiya had been crying almost the whole way home and realized that she was worried for Deidara.

"Naiya." Sasori said softly. She opened her eyes and stared at the smiling redhead. "Deidara's going to be just fine. Kakuzu knows what he is doing and I'm sure that he is taking good care of him and Itachi's there to help him out too. So don't worry yourself too much over him okay?" Naiya's watery eyes shone in the fading sunlight as she nodded once with a hint of sadness wiping off of her face. The others smiled once Sasori spoke those gentle and well thought out words. He usually was kind of cold and he never really spoke to Naiya directly but Naiya was important to Deidara so he wanted to make her calm down and he felt that it was his job to take care of her while Deidara was out of the picture. "We'll be home soon enough."

"Sasori is right, Kakuzu does know what he's doing." Hidan said knowing for sure because they were partners and they were required to know their partners as well or better than they knew themselves so this was a given for Hidan.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Itachi asked while watching Kakuzu continuing to examine Deidara's passed out body.

"I knew I should have gone to that day in ninja medical school. I must have skipped the day that we studied internal bleeding."

"So if he dies and it's your fault, what are you going to tell everyone else, especially Naiya?"

"Hey hold on a sec, I need to re-attach these muscles in the thorax , it may just slow the bleeding down. Some of these have been stretched and some have been completely torn off from their strands. This one is crucial so shut up while I'm doing this okay."

"Go ahead, any time you waste you're killing him." Itachi said and Kakuzu glared at him for a second then went to work. He directed his chakra flow to his hand and he placed it on Deidara's chest and began to reassemble the proteins in Deidara's muscles using the DNA fibres to reconnect with other ones of their likeness. Sweat droplets began to form over Kakuzu's forehead but he couldn't take his arms away to wipe the sweat off, eventually they grew so big that they fell down the side if his face and onto the floor. Five painfully long minutes later, Kakuzu had finished bonding those muscles together causing Deidara to wake up and once again, he vomited in the bucket. "Welcome back."

"Is Naiya here yet?" Deidara panted. Itachi shook his head. Deidara's face fell. "You know she can talk now, un."

"She can?" Kakuzu and Itachi said at the same time. Deidara closed his eyes and nodded.

"Yeah, she has the most beautiful voice." Deidara sighed. "It's like a voice of an angel."

"How are you feeling now?" Kakuzu asked.

"Better I guess. I think the majority... of my bleeding is in my stomach... since I keep on coughing up blood, hm." Deidara's breath intakes began to shallow.

"Hm, your platelet count is normal so why aren't they repairing the damage?"

"Maybe you're so old... that you forget... un."

"I can't believe this. You're on death row and you still have the strength to make jokes like that." Itachi said and Deidara laughed weakly.

"I guess that goes to show you... that I'm not a pessimist." Deidara smiled but then his eyebrows curved convex to his eyes. "But I wish that I could see Naiya... one last time... before I die... so that I can tell her how much I lo—"

"Here, bite on this." Itachi ordered shoving a towel in Deidara's mouth that he found. Kakuzu began to work on Deidara some more and he screamed as his muscles were being moved. His teeth bit deep into the cloth of the towel and blood came out of the corners of his mouth.

"Deidei!" Deidara heard a voice call for him. He gasped and spat out the towel to call back to her but he didn't have the strength to shout her name. "Deidei, Deidei!" Naiya shouted some more opening doors and eventually she opened the door to the medical room and ran over to Deidara. Deidara's face immediately brightened up when he seen Naiya's face however her face was distressed. She kneeled down beside him so that her face was close enough for him to touch.

"Naiya." Deidara half whispered. He struggled to lift up his good hand and he placed it on her cheek and caressed her soft skin with his thumb. "Thank goodness you're safe..." Deidara's chest rose up and down quickly and shallowly as he struggled to stay conscious. She lifted up one of her hands and placed it on top of Deidara's. She smiled her sweet innocent smile slightly that Deidara had long missed but it quickly faded.

"I'm... sorry." Naiya said bringing her hand down linked with his and put it on her lap.

"No, don't be... You did... nothing wrong... Naiya." Deidara stopped to catch his breath. "I'm just happy... that I could see your beautiful smile again... hm." Deidara's eyes slowly closed and Naiya jumped up and cried out. Tears streamed down her face and onto his chest.

"He's not getting enough oxygen. Itachi get the oxygen mask." Kakuzu said trying not to panic. Itachi found the oxygen mask and placed it over Deidara's airways and Kakuzu turned it on as high as it could go trying to force oxygen in his body so that the remaining red blood cells could carry them through out his body but since he lost so much blood, he wasn't getting the oxygen required for his body to function. "He's going into shock." Kakuzu warned. Pein stepped into the room to help Kakuzu.

"How's he doing?" Pein asked.

"He just went into shock." Itachi informed.

"Not good. Itachi, take Naiya into a different room. We can't afford any distractions now he's barely hanging on." Pein commanded. Itachi nodded and directed Naiya away but she tried to fight back to stay by Deidara's side.

"No! No! Deidei." She screamed trying to reach out to him and pass Itachi to get to him but Itachi prevented it due to orders. Once Naiya was out of the room, Pein locked the door so that no one could get in.

"Now, if we are to save his life, we need to close those wounds and give him some blood. Stabilize his heart. This may take a while."


	34. Chapter 34

Naiya had been sitting alone in Deidara and Sasori's room for hours waiting to see if Deidara was dead or not but every second that went by was like an eternity, a hellish moment on earth. She did nothing while waiting, she just sat on the bed and looked around the room at the mess that was lying around everywhere from Deidara's art. She couldn't stand being away from him any longer but the fact is that he could be dead and then she will have to be alone, away from him for the rest of her life. She grew tired of being in this room, everything in here reminded her of him since he had so many pieces of art sitting around some waiting to be finished, so she decided to get up and go somewhere else to wait. She walked throughout the Akatsuki base not paying attention to the others that were walking and laughing around her, she just walked past with her face glued to the ground trying not to show any tears while she was around the others, she decided to go outside where there was no one around to see her so she could be completely alone. Her hair lifted up from her sides as a heavy breeze filled the spring valley and the sun rays shone everywhere, but a depressing wind dulled the warmth of the solar glow chilling her cheeks and her heart.

Naiya walked across a large open grassy field until she reached a lone sakura tree that stood in front of a forest of evergreens and maples. She sat at the base of the large trunk and rested her head on it and closed her eyes. She did everything in her power to not think about Deidara but his voice kept on flowing through her mind. Not his normal voice, the voice that he used when he was talking to her and only her. Soft, sweet, gentle. He never spoke anything that would hurt her, he was always careful with his words around her.

Naiya had to stop and shake him out of her head, her heart sunk down and shattered as she was thinking of him and no matter what she did, she couldn't get him out of her mind and she had a weird feeling in her stomach, something that she had never felt before. It was like a knot was forming in her stomach and she lost what little apatite she had. She just couldn't get his face out of her head. She pictured his beautiful cobalt eyes that sparkled in the sunlight and was intensified from his perfectly sculpted smile that revealed his flawless white teeth. She imagined herself touching his soft skin running her fingers along his hidden cheekbone and his beautiful long lock of golden hair that rested overtop of his left eye hiding half of his handsome face. She just wanted to be held by him once again in his muscular arms but that day may not come. Naiya wanted to cry, but the thing is that she had already cried so much that her eyes were not producing any tears, they had dried out. If Deidara was dead, Naiya would let the Akatsuki take her Jinchuriki so that she would be killed and then she would be rid of these heart breaking feelings then she would no longer have to suffer.

Naiya opened her eyes and sighed as the wind blew the sakura pedals all around her. One floated down and landed on her folded hands. She picked it up and examined it closely but its beauty was not the same today as it was other days, it grew dull very quickly and she flicked it off of her finger and the pedal landed on the cold ground beside her. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back against the tree trunk again and before she knew it, she fell asleep. She wasn't asleep for too long, just about an hour but it didn't take long for her to start dreaming about Deidara, in fact, she could almost hear him calling her name.

"Naiya." Deidara said sweetly placing a hand on her folded fingers. Naiya opened her eyes, or so she thought. It appeared like Deidara was sitting right in front of her but he looked completely healed from his wounds, and he could move both arms. She looked at him with false hope in her eyes, she figured that she was dreaming but he just kept on smiling at her. If this was a dream, then she wouldn't be able to feel his hand on hers. To prove that this wasn't a dream, Deidara lifted his other hand up and he placed it on her cheek. Her eyes instantly widened and her face lit up when she felt his warm hand on her cold cheek. A smile came upon her.

"Deidei." She said as she jumped into his arms holding him tight. He squeezed her tight and put a hand behind her head to hold her close. Tears of joy instantly fell down from her eyes and onto his cloak, both of their hearts were beating to the same rhythm. Nothing was said between them, the silence was soothing, all they could ever want was to be in each other's arms so they enjoyed the long awaited moment. The wind began to pick up and blew both of their hair and loose clothing around like it was weightless. After a while, they broke apart and looked into each other's eyes. Deidara wiped her tears away with the back of his hand and then he held hers not being able to help his smile.

"Naiya, I have missed you so much. I can't tell you how much it hurt to be away from you, un. Don't ever leave me again."

"I missed... you too... Deidei... Thank you... for saving me." Naiya said softly and he just smiled and shook his head.

"You don't have to thank me. I couldn't handle not being with you. I missed not seeing your beautiful smile, it always makes me feel like everything is right in the world. I would give my life any day if I could just see your beautiful face for a single moment... Because... I..." Deidara stopped for a moment to swallow then he took a breath. Both of their hearts sped up as Deidara began to lean closer to her face. He slowed down when Naiya felt his breath on her lips and hers on his. Their scents were like sweet candy as their breath flowed into their noses. A hint of blush came upon Naiya's cheeks as she could feel Deidara's breath coming closer until she felt his warm thin lips being gently being pressed onto her pale lukewarm lips. Both of their eyes gradually closed as they continued to slowly kiss. Naiya lifted up both of her arms and folded them around the back of his neck and he used his hand to caress her cheek licking it slightly with the tongue on his hand to intensify their passionate kiss. It was a moment in heaven for each of them finally sharing a forever waited kiss and expressing their deep love for one another. Eventually they broke apart due to lack of air and they looked back into each other's eyes. Deidara smirked. "I love you, Naiya."

"I love you too, Deidei." Naiya finally said, she had been practicing those words and waiting what seemed to be like forever to hear them coming from her lovers lips and finally she could use that heart warming phrase. She smiled back at him.

"Be mine and promise me that you won't ever leave me again, hm." Deidara whispered. Naiya chuckled slightly when hearing those words.

"I promise." She whispered back. Deidara smiled and then pecked her forehead.

"Lets go back to the base then shall we, hm?" Deidara offered and Naiya nodded. He took her hand and helped her up onto her feet. Finally together as a couple they walked back to the base holding hands.

"Deidara... how is it that all your wounds are gone completely?" She asked successfully finding the right words and putting them in the right order.

"Surprisingly, Kakuzu is a good medical ninja and so is leader-sama. They used a jutsu that healed me almost completely, I was just told to take it easy for a couple of weeks, hm."

"That's good. I'm glad... you're alive." She said back to him, he smiled at her. As soon as they walked into the base, everyone's heads turned over to meet the eyes of the smiling couple and they noticed that they were finally holding hands. They couldn't help but smile.

"Welcome back, Deidara." Itachi said congratulating that he was healed and that he was finally brave enough to make the first move.

"Well how are you feeling Deidara?" Pein asked.

"Fantastic, thank you Kakuzu and leader-sama for saving my life, un." Deidara said and Pein nodded at him. "I guess I really owe you guys, hm?"

"You sure do, you know how expensive the equipment was that we used on you?" Kakuzu started and Deidara didn't take it seriously, in fact he didn't really pay attention. He was just happy to be alive and with his true love.

Later that same day, Naiya was in Deidara's room with him helping him clean it out. Since Orochimaru put that jutsu on Naiya, he couldn't make art anymore so he went through his clay and began to throw out dried up pieces that were too hard to work with. He had a whole garbage bag full and now he was about to throw his failed explosives away. He was weeding everything out starting with the useless stuff then he moved on to his masterpieces. Hiding in his closed he found a rose that he had made one time while he thought of Naiya and held it up to take a look at it. This sculpted clay was different from all of the others and was his only piece of art that was not meant to explode since he planned on giving it to her sometime. He looked over at her and seen she was too busy to notice the rose so he put it back so that he could give it to her some other time for an anniversary or something. Pein walked by the room with Sasori and they stopped when they seen Deidara and Naiya putting Deidara's clay masterpieces in the garbage.

"What are you two doing?" Sasori asked. Deidara looked up at his masters.

"Orochimaru placed a jutsu on Naiya. If I explode my clay, she will become blinded again and there will be no cure for her this time." Deidara's face sank to the ground as he threw another work of art in the garbage with disappointment.

"Oh really?" Pein said with a doubting tone in his voice, confused Deidara looked up at him.

"Why do you say that, hm?"

"Well because Orochimaru was a former Akatsuki member, I know most of his jutsu. Tell me, what hand signs combination did he use for the jutsu?" Pein asked.

"Tiger, Boar, Ox, Snake." Deidara said recalling the scene in his memory when Orochimaru placed that jutsu on Naiya. Pein raised an eyebrow and Sasori began chuckling. "What's so funny, un?"

"Clearly you have not studied those hand signs before." Pein laughed along too. "Those hand signs are well known for the substitution jutsu, and cannot use the same hand sign combination for another jutsu... In other words, Orochimaru was bluffing."

"What?" Deidara's voice raised.

"He must have done that so that he could fight you close combat which is more to his advantage unlike your long range tactics." Sasori said. Deidara was mad and embarrassed with himself but at the same time he had a sense of relief flushing over his face, he fell backwards on the floor and put his hands over his eyes and Naiya crawled over to him to see if he was okay.

"I am such an idiot, un." He said throwing his arms to the side. Naiya lied down too and rested her head on his chest making Deidara smile down at her. "Well now I have my art and more importantly, Naiya, yeah. Life couldn't get any better, hm." Pein rolled his eyes then he passed through but Sasori walked in his room and sat on the edge of his bed right above where Deidara was laying on the floor.

"Congratulations on getting the girl of your dreams." Sasori smirked and Deidara blushed back holding onto Naiya on the floor.

"Yeah it wasn't easy, hm. I only had to get myself half killed, un." Deidara joked but the he kissed Naiya on the top of her head. "But I'd do it again, yeah. Just for her."

 **The End**


End file.
